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>Nuclear is completely doomed How do you maintain a nation's baseline? Coal and gas plants or massive battery storage, which raises many questions about enviro

by GaggiX 3y ago

>Nuclear is completely doomed How do you maintain a nation's baseline? Coal and gas plants or massive battery storage, which raises many questions about environmental impact and resource requirements, hydro is not viable everywhere, is that the future you're hoping for?

specialist 3y ago
Advanced geothermal and thermal batteries.
rcxdude 3y ago
Baseline supply doesn't need to exist. You just need supply to match demand. Which mix of plants produces that can change dynamically just fine. The 'baseline' idea exists because of nuclear's high fixed costs and low marginal costs. This is also a form of generation which is complemented by dispatchable generation and storage, just the same as renewables, and does not complement renewables usefully at all. So if you wanted to build a grid based on nuclear you'd need to either overbuild it or build lots of storage, just the same as with renewables. And renewables absolutely destroy nuclear on cost.
epistasis 3y ago
Battery storage does not raise environmental impact or resource shortages. This is a fabricated story, and holding the industry to a standard that no other industry has ever been held to. As we electrify our cars and trucks, every house is going to end up with 2-7 days of household electricity requirements parked in their garage. Most models show that that alone should be enough to smooth over the daily variability. Using stationary, cheaper battery chemistries opens up an entirely new world of resources too. Battery + solar is already beating out new nuclear on cost, and we have decades of novel development of the techs to bring down costs even more. Unless nuclear can figure out a way to start dropping in cost by 10% every year, and having shorter capital lifetimes so you're not locked into the high initial cost of today for 60 years, it really will be doomed.

by GaggiX 3y ago

specialist 3y ago

Advanced geothermal and thermal batteries.

rcxdude 3y ago

Baseline supply doesn't need to exist. You just need supply to match demand. Which mix of plants produces that can change dynamically just fine. The 'baseline' idea exists because of nuclear's high fixed costs and low marginal costs. This is also a form of generation which is complemented by dispatchable generation and storage, just the same as renewables, and does not complement renewables usefully at all. So if you wanted to build a grid based on nuclear you'd need to either overbuild it or build lots of storage, just the same as with renewables. And renewables absolutely destroy nuclear on cost.

epistasis 3y ago

Battery storage does not raise environmental impact or resource shortages. This is a fabricated story, and holding the industry to a standard that no other industry has ever been held to. As we electrify our cars and trucks, every house is going to end up with 2-7 days of household electricity requirements parked in their garage. Most models show that that alone should be enough to smooth over the daily variability. Using stationary, cheaper battery chemistries opens up an entirely new world of resources too. Battery + solar is already beating out new nuclear on cost, and we have decades of novel development of the techs to bring down costs even more. Unless nuclear can figure out a way to start dropping in cost by 10% every year, and having shorter capital lifetimes so you're not locked into the high initial cost of today for 60 years, it really will be doomed.