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Wind/solar don't produce baseload power absent storage. If you can't scale storage proportionately to wind/solar, you can't compare w/s to nuclear because basel

Wind/solar don't produce baseload power absent storage. If you can't scale storage proportionately to wind/solar, you can't compare w/s to nuclear because baseload and non-baseload supply are not mutually substitutable.

tuatoru 3y ago
I was speed-watching a couple of videos on YouTube about this fifteen minutes ago. Search for "The Limiting Factor". Battery capacity will be a minor constraint, but only minor, as there are constraints in the PV and wind turbine supply chains as well. Those constraints are primarily NIMBY, the consenting processes for mines, refineries, and assembly factories in the case of PV and batteries, and for deployment in the case of wind. NIMBY applies ten-fold to nuclear.
_aavaa_ 3y ago
Part of the way this problem is solved is addressed by the article: - overbuild renewables - connect grids together If regional grids are connected together, then excess capacity in one region can be used by another. You don’t have to store your own electricity for later if you your neighbour can sell you their excess.
- YmiYugy 3y ago
  Except we need to use electricity for heating and the availability of solar inversely correlates with demand for heating and wind isn’t really able to make up for it. Because the effect is seasonal neighboring regions can’t really help each other. So yew either need to build an incredible amount of transport capacity over a really long distance or come up with some kind of storage solution. Doing both on scale is unimaginably expensive. Yes, nuclear power isn’t able to adjust as quickly as renewables or coal/gas, but if required it can add reduce about 10 percentage points per minute. This isn’t done because of the economics. Fixed costs are much higher.
  - _aavaa_ 3y ago
    Solar energy is not zero in the winter months, it’s just reduced. Whether solar remains viable in the winter months is an economic question regarding the final price after overbuilding. Wind being unable to work in to winter is an assertion that will need some backing up. Unimaginably expensive is not accurate description. A) hydro is an already existing solution that can work as storage. B) HVDC lines are unimaginably expensive compared to what? Nuclear, while dependable is not exactly cheap either.
  - hotpotamus 3y ago
    There is actually an inverse correlation between summer and winter in the northern and southern hemispheres. I wonder what the engineering issues with that scale of power transmission are, and if they're any worse than the political issues.

tuatoru 3y ago

I was speed-watching a couple of videos on YouTube about this fifteen minutes ago. Search for "The Limiting Factor". Battery capacity will be a minor constraint, but only minor, as there are constraints in the PV and wind turbine supply chains as well. Those constraints are primarily NIMBY, the consenting processes for mines, refineries, and assembly factories in the case of PV and batteries, and for deployment in the case of wind. NIMBY applies ten-fold to nuclear.

_aavaa_ 3y ago

Part of the way this problem is solved is addressed by the article: - overbuild renewables - connect grids together If regional grids are connected together, then excess capacity in one region can be used by another. You don’t have to store your own electricity for later if you your neighbour can sell you their excess.

YmiYugy 3y ago
Except we need to use electricity for heating and the availability of solar inversely correlates with demand for heating and wind isn’t really able to make up for it. Because the effect is seasonal neighboring regions can’t really help each other. So yew either need to build an incredible amount of transport capacity over a really long distance or come up with some kind of storage solution. Doing both on scale is unimaginably expensive. Yes, nuclear power isn’t able to adjust as quickly as renewables or coal/gas, but if required it can add reduce about 10 percentage points per minute. This isn’t done because of the economics. Fixed costs are much higher.
- _aavaa_ 3y ago
  Solar energy is not zero in the winter months, it’s just reduced. Whether solar remains viable in the winter months is an economic question regarding the final price after overbuilding. Wind being unable to work in to winter is an assertion that will need some backing up. Unimaginably expensive is not accurate description. A) hydro is an already existing solution that can work as storage. B) HVDC lines are unimaginably expensive compared to what? Nuclear, while dependable is not exactly cheap either.
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  There is actually an inverse correlation between summer and winter in the northern and southern hemispheres. I wonder what the engineering issues with that scale of power transmission are, and if they're any worse than the political issues.