2 ms·

Anything that depends on converting heat will be more expensive than renewables + storage. So, nukes, howsoever clever, have no place. Please do not pretend no

• jacknews 4y ago
  lol, go and do some calculations, and come back and tell us how many batteries we'll need to cover base load during a couple of weeks of calm, dark-skies snow or rain. I agree we should be investing in storage technologies too, just not to the exclusion of other options.
  • pfdietz 4y ago
    People have done the calculations on how much a 100% renewable energy economy would cost. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9837910 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9837910 > Even former critics must admit that adding e-fuels through PtX makes 100% RE possible at costs similar to fossil fuels. These critics are still questioning whether 100% RE is the cheapest solution but no longer claim it would be unfeasible or prohibitively expensive.
  • myrmidon 4y ago
    US residences currently use ~1kW per household. This means that current car-battery sized storage (~100kwh) would already last almost a week. Note that other western industrialized nations are significantly less wasteful with residential electricity; the same storage would last the average german household already over 2 weeks for example. Part of the difference might be explained by air conditioning-- but this conveniently requires very little storage anyway.
    • bborud 4y ago
      > US residences currently use ~1kW per household That sentence doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
      • myrmidon 4y ago
        Residential electricity use is around 10000 kWh per household per year (10000kWh/year / 365days/year / 24hours/day <=> ~1kW). Meaning that on average, each household requires ~1kW of electricity.
    • jacknews 4y ago
      If you don't go anywhere. And then there are the shops, factories, offices, datacenters, ...