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Nuclear was a thing in the 50's/60's but district heating isn't practical over long distances and nobody wanted nuclear plants in their suburbs. Renewables we

Nuclear was a thing in the 50's/60's but district heating isn't practical over long distances and nobody wanted nuclear plants in their suburbs. Renewables we already do burn quite a bit of. But really, quite a lot of household waste is actually renewable too - cardboard packaging, food scraps that didn't end up in the compost, such things. So it's really not that bad. Waste accounts for about 20% of the total energy required for heating in Sweden.

yreg 2y ago
I meant what's impossible about making electricity from nuclear/renewable sources and then powering electric heaters with that electricity?
- eru 2y ago
  You'd want to power heat pumps. Electric heaters get you 100% efficiency. Heat pumps get you 400%+ efficiency.
  - renhanxue 2y ago
    That is already a thing, and it's being expanded. The Stockholm municipal energy company is already operating what they claim to be the world's largest heat pump facility with a capacity to extract 225 MW of heat from treated wastewater. It first opened in 1986 and has been incrementally expanded over the years. Both the hot and the cold sides of the heat pumps are used; the cold side goes into the district cooling system and is used in e.g. datacenters. Still, this facility has both heat pumps, biofuel furnaces, and as a backup for the rare extremely cold days, resistive water heaters. It should also be mentioned that Swedish electricity generation is effectively 100% renewable already; it's mainly wind, hydro and nuclear. The co-generation plants mainly produce heating and only a small amount of electricity, more or less as a byproduct. Waste incineration has a more or less negligible carbon footprint if you look at the big picture.
eru 2y ago
> Nuclear was a thing in the 50's/60's but district heating isn't practical over long distances and nobody wanted nuclear plants in their suburbs. Modern heat pumps are really good (like 400%+ efficient), and run on electricity.

yreg 2y ago

I meant what's impossible about making electricity from nuclear/renewable sources and then powering electric heaters with that electricity?

eru 2y ago
You'd want to power heat pumps. Electric heaters get you 100% efficiency. Heat pumps get you 400%+ efficiency.
- renhanxue 2y ago
  That is already a thing, and it's being expanded. The Stockholm municipal energy company is already operating what they claim to be the world's largest heat pump facility with a capacity to extract 225 MW of heat from treated wastewater. It first opened in 1986 and has been incrementally expanded over the years. Both the hot and the cold sides of the heat pumps are used; the cold side goes into the district cooling system and is used in e.g. datacenters. Still, this facility has both heat pumps, biofuel furnaces, and as a backup for the rare extremely cold days, resistive water heaters. It should also be mentioned that Swedish electricity generation is effectively 100% renewable already; it's mainly wind, hydro and nuclear. The co-generation plants mainly produce heating and only a small amount of electricity, more or less as a byproduct. Waste incineration has a more or less negligible carbon footprint if you look at the big picture.

eru 2y ago

> Nuclear was a thing in the 50's/60's but district heating isn't practical over long distances and nobody wanted nuclear plants in their suburbs. Modern heat pumps are really good (like 400%+ efficient), and run on electricity.