4 ms·

I think nuclear is one of those things that will never go away. While a fully renewable future would be nice, it's highly variable. Sure you can offset dark n

I think nuclear is one of those things that will never go away. While a fully renewable future would be nice, it's highly variable. Sure you can offset dark nights with wind power, or cold winters with hydro power. But no matter how good the storage, I think there's always going to be a scenario where we need on-demand power and there's only so much power you can reserve thermally/potentially/etc. I think it's likely that there will always be some amount of nuclear/fossil/coal for on-demand power for surges when everyone switches their kettles on during the adverts

credit_guy 4y ago
If we use natural gas to cover the occasional demand-supply gaps, we can end up needing only 10% of the natural gas we need today. If that's all the emissions we produce, we are well into negative net emissions territory.
Oxidation 4y ago
Unless nuclear gets drastically cheaper, it'll never be good for on-demand generation. Because fuel is a small cost relative to capital repayments, operations and other fixed costs, operators run them flat out 24/7. You're paying to run the plant and you're paying your debts off anyway, so you might as well sell energy at any price since the marginal cost is minimal. They also don't start quickly. If you look at https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/, you can see nuclear runs at more or less the same output day in, day out.
Schroedingersat 4y ago
Neither nuclear nor coal are good for when people switch on their kettles. You want hydro (storage or generation), OCGT, and battery for that. And you can already run a low capacity OCGT off of hydrogen for less than a nuclear plant at similarly low capacity.
eternityforest 4y ago
I'm not so sure about that. If storage gets cheap enough and can be made of sustainable materials, everyone will have a MWh sized battery in the basement.

credit_guy 4y ago

If we use natural gas to cover the occasional demand-supply gaps, we can end up needing only 10% of the natural gas we need today. If that's all the emissions we produce, we are well into negative net emissions territory.

Oxidation 4y ago

Unless nuclear gets drastically cheaper, it'll never be good for on-demand generation. Because fuel is a small cost relative to capital repayments, operations and other fixed costs, operators run them flat out 24/7. You're paying to run the plant and you're paying your debts off anyway, so you might as well sell energy at any price since the marginal cost is minimal. They also don't start quickly. If you look at https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/, you can see nuclear runs at more or less the same output day in, day out.

Schroedingersat 4y ago

Neither nuclear nor coal are good for when people switch on their kettles. You want hydro (storage or generation), OCGT, and battery for that. And you can already run a low capacity OCGT off of hydrogen for less than a nuclear plant at similarly low capacity.

eternityforest 4y ago

I'm not so sure about that. If storage gets cheap enough and can be made of sustainable materials, everyone will have a MWh sized battery in the basement.