2 ms·

So why isn't production of new gas plants immediately banned and all effort put to replacing them fully with batteries? As it is cheaper and you won't need thos

by Ekaros 3y ago

So why isn't production of new gas plants immediately banned and all effort put to replacing them fully with batteries? As it is cheaper and you won't need those gas plants anymore.

ceejayoz 3y ago
Because the system is managed by practical people with multi-decade plans, not people trying to score a point in an Internet argument.
ben_w 3y ago
"Don't need" != "Don't want"; lots of marketing/lobbying by companies/countries who do want (e.g. OPEC); also the question was originally focussed on nuclear rather than of gas — nuclear is really expensive, gas isn't anything like so expensive, you can also do renewables + gas if you like (and many do), or promise to get around to shifting the gas in "gas" to hydrogen which could come from PV (something which other people are selling; while I'm not sold on it, I'm not in a position to matter, only one person is targeting me personally with the sales pitch for hydrogen and I'm sure they'll pop up in this thread soon enough…); also it's good to have a diverse supply even when one of the options looks really expensive, just so failures aren't correlated.
nicoburns 3y ago
One problem is that we don't have the production capacity to produce that much battery capacity yet. Battery production is rapidly ramping up, but that will take time.
- krupan 3y ago
  So then batteries are not actually cheaper
  - ben_w 3y ago
    Cost and production scale are different questions, regardless of if you're asking about now or any other point in time.
    - krupan 3y ago
      "Cost and production scale are different questions" No they aren't. At any given time cost is determined by supply and demand. If you can't supply enough to meet demand, then the cost is high. If there is no supply, then the cost is infinitely high. It really isn't very complicated.
      - ben_w 3y ago
        Given you can look at the batteries for sale and observe their cost, you can apply your logic to determine something about current demand levels.

by Ekaros 3y ago

So why isn't production of new gas plants immediately banned and all effort put to replacing them fully with batteries? As it is cheaper and you won't need those gas plants anymore.

ceejayoz 3y ago

Because the system is managed by practical people with multi-decade plans, not people trying to score a point in an Internet argument.

ben_w 3y ago

"Don't need" != "Don't want"; lots of marketing/lobbying by companies/countries who do want (e.g. OPEC); also the question was originally focussed on nuclear rather than of gas — nuclear is really expensive, gas isn't anything like so expensive, you can also do renewables + gas if you like (and many do), or promise to get around to shifting the gas in "gas" to hydrogen which could come from PV (something which other people are selling; while I'm not sold on it, I'm not in a position to matter, only one person is targeting me personally with the sales pitch for hydrogen and I'm sure they'll pop up in this thread soon enough…); also it's good to have a diverse supply even when one of the options looks really expensive, just so failures aren't correlated.

nicoburns 3y ago

One problem is that we don't have the production capacity to produce that much battery capacity yet. Battery production is rapidly ramping up, but that will take time.

krupan 3y ago
So then batteries are not actually cheaper
- ben_w 3y ago
  Cost and production scale are different questions, regardless of if you're asking about now or any other point in time.
  - krupan 3y ago
    "Cost and production scale are different questions" No they aren't. At any given time cost is determined by supply and demand. If you can't supply enough to meet demand, then the cost is high. If there is no supply, then the cost is infinitely high. It really isn't very complicated.
    - ben_w 3y ago
      Given you can look at the batteries for sale and observe their cost, you can apply your logic to determine something about current demand levels.