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If you had enough storage you could just build more renewables and produce the power at lower cost.

• bsder 2y ago
  Repeat after me: Renewables can't do base load. Renewables can't do base load. Renewables can't do base load. If you have enough storage, you don't have to adapt your reactor second by second. You let the storage buffer out the peaks and valleys and you use the reactor to backfill the storage over the course of hours and days.
  • dubcanada 2y ago
    Hydro can do base load. Hydro is considered a renewable.
    • ac29 2y ago
      Geothermal as well
  • adrianN 2y ago
    If you read my comment carefully I argue that with enough storage to run a nuclear power plant optimally, you can also run renewables, but cheaper.
• smeej 2y ago
  > you could just build more renewables I think your "just" is carrying a lot of weight here. Building more renewables requires buy-in from a LOT more people, like state and local government officials, never mind the actual construction of them, with all its cost overruns and boondoggling. It takes a long time. Setting up a bitcoin mining facility is comparatively a lot easier, especially when your goal isn't "mine the highest value at the lowest cost" (which would require the latest and greatest hardware, etc.), but rather "burn off this extra energy and make a non-zero amount of money off of it in the process."