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The gist is that the carbon output from gas peaker plants is not that high because they don’t run that much more than under nuclear base load. Just at different

The gist is that the carbon output from gas peaker plants is not that high because they don’t run that much more than under nuclear base load. Just at different times. Summer air conditioning peaks are shit on nuclear but great on solar for example.

illiarian 4y ago
> Summer air conditioning peaks are shit on nuclear They are not, of course. And I wonder who will take care of peak air conditioning on a summer night?
- faeriechangling 4y ago
  Presumably the other side of the planet blocking the sun's rays?
  - illiarian 4y ago
    Ah yes. And you have cables sending you power from that other side, right?
    - peterfirefly 4y ago
      It's also a good thing that such cables are entirely safe from being destroyed by enemies.
  - narag 4y ago
    If transport over big distances wasn't a problem, both technical and political, solar would be the only source we need. I've read here multiple times that a "small" solar farm in the Sahara desert would suffice to provide energy for all Europe. Even if you can solve transporting it, imagine what could happen if it's in, or the wires run through a country in civil war, like Sudan.
    - _ph_ 4y ago
      Yes, the problems with solar in Africa powering Europe are mostly political, not technical. Of course, a good intermediate step would be a big roll out of solar in all the southern EU countries. Which will undoubtedly come now that more and more countries push for renewables.
    - bkor 4y ago
      > If transport over big distances wasn't a problem There's a project that's planning solar power generation in Morocco and a cable to the UK. That'll be a fairly long cable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xlinks_Morocco-UK_Power_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xlinks_Morocco-UK_Power_Projec.... Though no idea how realistic this is, it seems a bit like a new electric car company website that only has a prototype. Meaning, it seems that project seems to not escape the planning stage. There's already a lot of cables between the UK and other countries, e.g. Norway and France. Though those aren't that long in comparison to something connecting to the UK. EU is trying to tie all the various grids of the various countries together. There are loads of initiatives around that. Aside from that the Southern EU countries are trying to connect their grids to North Africa. Though again, that's not a huge distance to cover.
      - illiarian 4y ago
        > Though no idea how realistic this is They promise to start delivering power in 2030, and estimate the project cost at 16bn dollars or something along those lines. We all now how well it goes with mega projects :)
- brazzy 4y ago
  In Germany, there are only a handful of nights per year where you may want air conditioning. Most German homes don't even have AC.
  - illiarian 4y ago
    Germany has other peaks. That's why nuclear reactors before they were shutdown were routinely going between 600-800MW and 1.2-1.4 GW per reactor per day: https://www.oecd-nea.org/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-12/technical_and_economic_aspects_of_load_following_with_nuclear_power_plants.pdf https://www.oecd-nea.org/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-12...
- Schroedingersat 3y ago
  A thermostat with a timer that starts running at 3pm and a small sodium ion battery that costs less than the air conditioner it is running.
faeriechangling 4y ago
Yes but Germany seems to only be using 10% solar power. They seem to be using an awful lot of wind, and it was my understanding that how much power they produced was somewhat random but fairly close to constant over time. I don't think the solar argument sounds intuitively wrong to me, I just would like to see the argument fleshed out in some more detail. I have an open mind I've just never heard this argument before.
- _ph_ 4y ago
  Obviously, Germany has to install way more solar. Unfortunately, the previous governments tried to curb the installation of solar (and wind). But this is quickly changing now. Solar is especially easy to grow as there are plenty of unused areas (e.g. roofs) which can be used without much negative impact.
- bkor 4y ago
  > They seem to be using an awful lot of wind, and it was my understanding that how much power they produced was somewhat random The amount of wind that's produced is predictable. In NL they do "day ahead pricing". You can get energy contracts based upon those prices. It's pretty easy to predict the amount of solar energy and wind energy a day in advance. It's not random.

illiarian 4y ago

> Summer air conditioning peaks are shit on nuclear They are not, of course. And I wonder who will take care of peak air conditioning on a summer night?

faeriechangling 4y ago
Presumably the other side of the planet blocking the sun's rays?
- illiarian 4y ago
  Ah yes. And you have cables sending you power from that other side, right?
  - peterfirefly 4y ago
    It's also a good thing that such cables are entirely safe from being destroyed by enemies.
- narag 4y ago
  If transport over big distances wasn't a problem, both technical and political, solar would be the only source we need. I've read here multiple times that a "small" solar farm in the Sahara desert would suffice to provide energy for all Europe. Even if you can solve transporting it, imagine what could happen if it's in, or the wires run through a country in civil war, like Sudan.
  - _ph_ 4y ago
    Yes, the problems with solar in Africa powering Europe are mostly political, not technical. Of course, a good intermediate step would be a big roll out of solar in all the southern EU countries. Which will undoubtedly come now that more and more countries push for renewables.
  - bkor 4y ago
    > If transport over big distances wasn't a problem There's a project that's planning solar power generation in Morocco and a cable to the UK. That'll be a fairly long cable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xlinks_Morocco-UK_Power_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xlinks_Morocco-UK_Power_Projec.... Though no idea how realistic this is, it seems a bit like a new electric car company website that only has a prototype. Meaning, it seems that project seems to not escape the planning stage. There's already a lot of cables between the UK and other countries, e.g. Norway and France. Though those aren't that long in comparison to something connecting to the UK. EU is trying to tie all the various grids of the various countries together. There are loads of initiatives around that. Aside from that the Southern EU countries are trying to connect their grids to North Africa. Though again, that's not a huge distance to cover.
    - illiarian 4y ago
      > Though no idea how realistic this is They promise to start delivering power in 2030, and estimate the project cost at 16bn dollars or something along those lines. We all now how well it goes with mega projects :)
brazzy 4y ago
In Germany, there are only a handful of nights per year where you may want air conditioning. Most German homes don't even have AC.
- illiarian 4y ago
  Germany has other peaks. That's why nuclear reactors before they were shutdown were routinely going between 600-800MW and 1.2-1.4 GW per reactor per day: https://www.oecd-nea.org/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-12/technical_and_economic_aspects_of_load_following_with_nuclear_power_plants.pdf https://www.oecd-nea.org/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-12...
Schroedingersat 3y ago
A thermostat with a timer that starts running at 3pm and a small sodium ion battery that costs less than the air conditioner it is running.

faeriechangling 4y ago

Yes but Germany seems to only be using 10% solar power. They seem to be using an awful lot of wind, and it was my understanding that how much power they produced was somewhat random but fairly close to constant over time. I don't think the solar argument sounds intuitively wrong to me, I just would like to see the argument fleshed out in some more detail. I have an open mind I've just never heard this argument before.

_ph_ 4y ago
Obviously, Germany has to install way more solar. Unfortunately, the previous governments tried to curb the installation of solar (and wind). But this is quickly changing now. Solar is especially easy to grow as there are plenty of unused areas (e.g. roofs) which can be used without much negative impact.
bkor 4y ago
> They seem to be using an awful lot of wind, and it was my understanding that how much power they produced was somewhat random The amount of wind that's produced is predictable. In NL they do "day ahead pricing". You can get energy contracts based upon those prices. It's pretty easy to predict the amount of solar energy and wind energy a day in advance. It's not random.