3 ms·
> Someone from France is telling you that actually, it's really not that great... That person is really just spreading FUD: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?i
by illiarian 3y ago
> Someone from France is telling you that actually, it's really not that great...
That person is really just spreading FUD: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35659262 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35659262
> How many times do people need to be told that with all the renewables coming onto the grid, we don't need more base load?
Of course we do
> We need storage.
Yes. And it's non-existent. There are literally no grid-scale strage solutions in existence.
> Do any of you geniuses realize that it's a lot more difficult for the grid to accommodate the injection of tens of gigawatts of power, than it is to handle tens of gigawatts of highly distributed generation and storage across a large region?
Neither are particularly true statements. Also, what do you think grid-scale storage would do if not inject gigawatts of power into a grid when needed?
> Nuclear capacity takes a minimum of ten years, more like 20,
Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant in China: 6.1 GW nameplate capacity. Built over 14 years at 1 reactor per 6 years. Operational.
Meanwhile the very distributed Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project was founded in 2018, and is promised to start powering Britain in 2030.
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Of the megaprojects surveyed, 64% were delayed and 57% were over budget.
https://www.offshorewind.biz/2016/12/02/offshore-wind-projects-have-less-delays-and-cost-overruns-says-ey/ https://www.offshorewind.biz/2016/12/02/offshore-wind-projec...
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So we know how that will go.
> Nuclear plants require a continuous, expensive, complicated supply chain and hundreds of people supervising and maintaining it.
> The panels last for decades, and can be recycled. Wind turbines require more maintenance but it's standard industrial electrical/mechanical stuff, just on a tall stick.
Of course it's not just a tal stick. It's a rather complicated machine that you can't even safely get to since it's so tall. And that's before we start talking about offshore wind farms like Hornsea 2. Yo need a lot of specialist equipment to maintain those.
There are 500 to 800 people working on a nuclear power plant.
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Each windfarm tends to have between 7 and 11 employees per 100 MW
https://graham.umich.edu/media/pubs/Wind-Turbine-Economic-Impact-Local-Employment-46932.pdf https://graham.umich.edu/media/pubs/Wind-Turbine-Economic-Im...
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So while fewer than per a nuclear plant, you still have to keep in mind that you need to massively overbuild renewables because their generation fluctuates.
- sharemywin 3y agoWonder if this could make a difference? Iron-Air Batteries Are Here. They May Alter the Future of Energy. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a42532492/iron-air-battery-energy-storage/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a42532492/ir...
- illiarian 3y agoI'll believe it when I see it. It's a lot of could should would. A lot of tech "revolutions" sizzled away into nothingness after initial round of celebratory press.
- 7952 3y agoNot the parent. But grid scale battery storage does exist. The UK has around 30GW in the pipeline and deployed around 1GW last year. Projects like xlinks are not directly comparable to other mega projects as they are far less monolithic. They can scale out rather than having to scale up. In terms of staffing a nuclear station needs many different professions who are relatively expensive, specialised, and need to be heavily monitored for safety. Renewables requires talent obviously but probably less so.