5 ms·

> 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 3y ago
Presumably the other side of the planet blocking the sun's rays?
- illiarian 3y ago
  Ah yes. And you have cables sending you power from that other side, right?
  - peterfirefly 3y ago
    It's also a good thing that such cables are entirely safe from being destroyed by enemies.
- narag 3y 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_ 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y ago

Presumably the other side of the planet blocking the sun's rays?

illiarian 3y ago
Ah yes. And you have cables sending you power from that other side, right?
- peterfirefly 3y ago
  It's also a good thing that such cables are entirely safe from being destroyed by enemies.
narag 3y 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_ 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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.