4 ms·
It’s only too late for nuclear if we continue to let oil barons decide to stunt the growth of genuine competition in the market. The reality of renewables is th
by tourmalinetaco 2y ago
It’s only too late for nuclear if we continue to let oil barons decide to stunt the growth of genuine competition in the market. The reality of renewables is they are not and have never been consistent enough to provide full power, and we don’t have the battery technology to keep an energy grid’s worth of electricity on standby. If coal is too ecologically damaging then we need another on-demand power source to replace it since solar cannot supply us entirely and cannot respond to upticks in demand.
I am genuinely convinced most of the people discussing energy have no practical understanding of the power grid. Coal is useful because it can be turned on/off relatively quickly as demand required. Nuclear can do similar, renewables cannot.
- Ekaros 2y agoI don't doubt renewables and batteries to be able to handle say day or two of power demand in most scenarios... Question really become about seasonal handling. Specially if we move heating from fossils to electricity even with heat pumps. Doing the seasonal bit at scale in whole Western world(not just select blessed locations). Seems very far. At least if anything closing reasonable costs per kwh spend during low production times is considered.
- pfdietz 2y agoSeasonal leveling would be done by combining solar/wind (which tend to have opposite seasonality) and by use of overprovisioning and production of e-fuels, like hydrogen. To see how this would work, go to https://model.energy/ https://model.energy/ and find optimal solutions for synthesized constant output using solar, wind, batteries, and hydrogen storage. The cost optimizing solutions are found vs. real historical weather data.