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> Solar and batteries are still more expensive than gas (as the article admits) On the contrary > The sunniest US city, Las Vegas [...] It could get to 60% so
by gpm 1y ago
> Solar and batteries are still more expensive than gas (as the article admits)
On the contrary
> The sunniest US city, Las Vegas [...] It could get to 60% solar+storage at $65/MWh — cheaper than gas.
The article asserts that until you are generating the majority of your power from Solar+Storage, at least in favorable places, solar is cheaper than gas...
And it reached that conclusion under the incredibly unfavourable assumption that all the solar is in the same place, not being distributed around by a grid averaging out the amount of cloud cover over space.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- pydry 1y agoalso waaaaaaay cheaper than nuclear power.
- MostlyStable 1y agoIn a thread decrying policy choices that are artificially making one particular kind of power generation more expensive than they have to be, this seems like a weird comment to make.
- matthewdgreen 1y agoIs nuclear power only expensive because of policy choices? I know it's cheaper in, say, China where the policy is different, but it still isn't anywhere as cheap as solar.
- ben_w 1y agoYes on both halves of that. Expensive in that the policy choice is "we want the worst-case to be affordable", and that this includes not only explosive meltdowns but also international treaties to make sure nobody steals radioisotopes. More than it needs to be, because anecdotes I've heard about radiation spills include "some liquid was spilled on the tarmac so we had to dig up a long deep trench; the replacement had some granite in and was more radioactive than the stuff it replaced".
- matthewdgreen 1y agoI’m going to push back on this and point out that the major difference between expensive and inexpensive power isn’t really safety choices, it’s the ability to mass-produce power generation components. Solar PV is at the far end of the spectrum, since panels are essentially printed in a factory. Late 20th century French nuclear is in the middle, because many nuclear power plants were constructed at the same time using nearly identical specs. Today’s nuclear power is at the opposite end, where virtually every plant is bespoke. Even China hasn’t fully standardized on a single plant that they’re building in huge numbers without customization.