4 ms·
Baseload power is still very much relevant. People will not tolerate power outages when it's cloudy. Yes, storage has advanced, but it's nowhere near the capaci
by mjhay 2y ago
Baseload power is still very much relevant. People will not tolerate power outages when it's cloudy. Yes, storage has advanced, but it's nowhere near the capacity that's needed. If it were, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. It's far from the capacity of existing nuclear power supplies, right now - much less what is needed.
- ViewTrick1002 2y agoGiven your answer it does not seem like you opened the linked article. Storage in California is supplying the equivalent to 4-6 nuclear reactors during the evening peaks. They are supplying nuclear scale level energy. We are having this discussion because a nuclear energy startup sees their window of opportunity vanish. Baseload on the demand side still exists. Baseload powerplants not so much. Look at the rate California is installing storage. Given the current rate, in 20 years time when what we install today reaches EOL, California will have 10 hours of storage during the summer peak. When simulating the Australian grid with 5 hours of storage at mean power levels that leads to 99% reliability. [1] A nuclear plant to solve the last 1% is a non-starter. Of course we also do not only rely on storage, there is also: - Large grid to decouple weather patterns - Demand response People already get on hourly contracts and schedule car charging for when it is cheap. The next step is automating it and making it more streamlined. Some companies already support chargers which integrate with the pricing, they can even give you money back through demand response. [1]: https://twitter.com/DavidOsmond8 https://twitter.com/DavidOsmond8