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I feel like the "wind and solar only!" crowd love to point out externalities of other forms of power generation but not wind and solar. It's not magic; we don't

• ncmncm 4y ago
  > real costs Smaller real costs. It costs less to build and operate a solar or wind farm than just to operate an already-paid-for coal plant. It costs, just now, about the same to build and operate a solar or wind farm as to just operate an already-paid-for nuke. But renewable costs are still falling fast. Cost of storage is falling faster than wind or solar ever did. By the time Cali needs to build storage -- after there is renewable generation capacity to charge it from -- it will be very cheap.
  • MagnumOpus 4y ago
    It costs less... in California or adjacent states with both massive insolation and good infrastructure. It doesn't cost less in Germany or Poland which is north of the 50th latitude and has about a third of the insolation per year. And storage has some very hard physical limits on scaling up that will prevent costs from falling a lot - mostly the actual amount of the elements on earth that are needed for the batteries.
    • ncmncm 4y ago
      In fact storage has no physical limits on scaling up. Costs are low and falling faster than solar and wind ever did, and there is no reason to doubt it will continue. The overwhelming majority of storage is not batteries, and will not be batteries. If you have to lie to make your case, what does that tell your readers?