3 ms·
The cost competitiveness and societal issues make sense (though I suspect some of the cost is being externalized in terms of materials extraction and manufactur
by catlifeonmars 8mo ago
The cost competitiveness and societal issues make sense (though I suspect some of the cost is being externalized in terms of materials extraction and manufacturing).
I don’t understand what you mean by “no learning curve”. Do you mean that the learning curve is particularly steep for plant operators?
- brohee 8mo agoSorry, the manufacturing learning curve. The most widgets you make, the cheapest they get. The effect was absolutely stunning for batteries and solar panels (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/price-of-lithium-ion-battery-cells https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/price-of-lithium-ion-batt...). We make too few nuclear power plants for them to have a noticeable learning curve, and recently each subsequent one ends up more expensive than the latest, notably because of safety regulation. Korea and I think China had the best success in that regard (and France in the 80s) by being able to make real series, but you don't really see those now except maybe China. More here: https://ourworldindata.org/learning-curve https://ourworldindata.org/learning-curve