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Nuclear produces more electricity than wind and solar combined: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_g
by Manuel_D 3y ago
Nuclear produces more electricity than wind and solar combined: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation
I do agree wind and solar are cheaper presently. But this is primarily because they're being deployed in the context of supplementing a fossil-fuel backed grid. Provisioning more wind and solar starts becoming much dicier when you start saturating the grid during hours of peak production. In theory, negative electricity prices will prompt people to provision storage and capture the free (cheaper than free!) energy. But in practice, energy storage at grid scale is expensive and there are much better uses for batteries - chiefly in electric vehicles.
Nuclear, on the other hand, is one of the few carbon-free energy sources that is non-intermittent. The only others are geographically limited: hydropower and geothermal power.
- danhor 3y agoInterestingly enough the source for the first graph in the article shows the opposite: https://www.eia.gov/international/data/world/electricity/electricity-generation https://www.eia.gov/international/data/world/electricity/ele... Even more staggering is that from 2020 to 2021 solar+wind grew by ~15%.
- jes5199 3y agobattery production will keep increasing, and eventually the EV-battery market will be saturated recycled EV batteries could be a major source for cheap grid battery storage
- zeroonetwothree 3y agoCurrently only 1% of vehicles are electric. So it’s going to be a while.
- actionfromafar 3y agoGiven how often I see the EVs though, it seems EVs must be more in active use.
- lossolo 3y agoGiven how often I see supercars in Monaco, it seems they must be more in active use.
- actionfromafar 3y agoObviously. In Monaco.
- natmaka 3y ago> Nuclear produces more electricity than wind and solar combined It isn't about "nuclear and (wind+solar)" but about "nuclear and renewables": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38301796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38301796 > energy storage at grid scale is expensive and there are much better uses for batteries - chiefly in electric vehicles Those are composable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle-to-grid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle-to-grid