3 ms·
„The venerable “baseload” concept—that grid stability needs gigawatt-scale, steadily operating thermal (steam-raising) power plants—reflects the valid and vital
by Ringz 2y ago
„The venerable “baseload” concept—that grid stability needs gigawatt-scale, steadily operating thermal (steam-raising) power plants—reflects the valid and vital economic practice of dispatching power at least operating cost, so resources with lowest operating costs are run most. This traditional role of giant thermal plants led many people to suppose that such plants are always needed. But now that renewables with no fuel cost are taking over the “baseload” role of being dispatched whenever available, those big thermal plants are relegated to fewer operating hours, making the term “baseload” an obsolete honorific. Thermal plants must now adapt to follow the net load left after cost-effective efficiency, demand response, and real-time “base-cost” renewable supply have been dispatched. Nuclear power’s limited flexibility, and its technical and economic challenges when cycled, have thus become a handicap, complicating least-cost and stable grid operation with a rising share of zero-carbon, least-cost variable renewables. That is why Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) found that early closure of its well running Diablo Canyon reactors would save customers money and, by making the grid more flexible, raise renewables’ share. Those reactors had become cheaper to close than to run: the power systems’ shift to renewables had turned them from an asset to a liability, so they’ll be replaced by competitively procured low-carbon resources, saving both money and carbon.“
Source: https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/The-World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-Report-2019-HTML.html#npved https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/The-World-Nuclear-Industr...
- NewJazz 2y agoSo why are they keeping it open?
- toomuchtodo 2y agoCarbon emission reduction until firmed renewables (renewables + batteries) replace that generation. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-finalizes-11-billion-credits-california-nuclear-plant-2024-01-17/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-finalizes-11-billion-cre...
- rayiner 2y agoWhen are we getting the grid scale batteries that can even get through the night without requiring natural gas?
- toomuchtodo 2y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40046144 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40046144 Take a look below at how much battery storage discharging (purple) offsets natural gas (maroon) after the sun sets in California on the hourly electricity origin graph. Not much further left to go at current battery deployment trajectories. Conveniently, Tesla’s Megapack manufacturing facility is in Northern California, speeding deployments in state. https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/US-CAL-CISO https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/US-CAL-CISO https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images/2024.02.15/chart2.svg https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images/2024.02.15/chart2.s... (draw attention to California and the blue battery storage sites) https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/california-energy-storage-system-survey https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/califo... https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2023-10/california-sees-unprecedented-growth-energy-storage-key-component-states-clean https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2023-10/california-sees-unpre... https://electrek.co/2024/04/15/renewables-met-100-percent-california-energy-demand-30-days/ https://electrek.co/2024/04/15/renewables-met-100-percent-ca... (I too am excited to push fossil gas out of the generation mix! Onward!)
- ZeroGravitas 2y agoThe federal government paid them over a billion dollars to do so.