ncmncm

41 ms·

451.
by ncmncm 4y ago
The series seems to focus mostly on <0.5GW projects. Maybe bigger projects are assembled from those?
452.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Probably the assumption is that you will upgrade the panels at radically reduced prices, re-using the wiring and support. Then, the cost is for insurance against the site being no longer viable. And, probably, the cabling has high scrap val
453.
by ncmncm 4y ago
In other words, "fiscal conservatives'" chief desire is to move government money into private pockets at maximum rate in exchange for little or no value. "Fiscal responsibility" is just their smokescreen. They certa
454.
by ncmncm 4y ago
"This article is more than 10 years old"
455.
by ncmncm 4y ago
This is an excellent series. Important: several of the "next installment" links point to the same one, instead, and you have to hand-edit the link to get to the next one. Something not mentioned that I found surprising was the ver
456.
by ncmncm 4y ago
It will need to be accelerated. Maybe perovskites on rolls will enable that. I imagine fenceposts with bifacial film stretched between, in fence-rows running north-south in pastures everywhere, high enough to walk under. Cheap enough, it wo
457.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Money matters in that you can spend it building and operating nukes, or building renewables. You can't spend the same dollar on both, but the dollar spent on renewables gets you more kW than the same dollar spent on nukes. We will need
458.
by ncmncm 4y ago
And there is less resistance. Dying to indulge Putin would be like dying to indulge W. Dying to eject Russia from Ukraine seems better, except the need to is tragic. Combat deaths among Ukrainian soldiers is comparable to Russian losses, ma
459.
by ncmncm 4y ago
The std::optional in MSVC was implemented in a language considerably behind current C++, for obvious reasons. The need to use template metaprogramming in implementations is much less, today.
460.
by ncmncm 4y ago
It's trivial, really: heat and dust drag down conversion efficiency and panel life. There are just so many other, better places to put them that may continue being used.
461.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Agreed. Just noting that drawing down your ammonia storage to run ammonia synthesis for sale would make no sense. But an aluminum plant might reasonably burn aluminum powder to keep its furnaces hot, when spot price peaks.
462.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Rooftop solar costs quite a lot more to field than utility solar. If you can buy from a community solar project, instead, that is likely a better deal.
463.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Your electricity got more expensive because of an artificial NG shortage. Failing to build out solar will leave you buying from neighboring countries that didn't, at prices less than it costs to operate your reactors.
464.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Land use, even if, would not matter, because solar coexists with existing uses. Float solar on reservoirs and canals, post it in fence-rows on pasture and cropland, lay it out on industrial and warehouse roofing.
465.
by ncmncm 4y ago
A running nuke needs its steam turbine maintained, a periodically expensive proposition. Capex, of course, is on top of that. Decommissioning is part of capex, though probably taxpayers will mostly end up on the hook for that. Does it cost
466.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Cost for motor/generators is not changing, but the tech is extremely mature. Costs for electrolysers and fuel cells are both falling fast. Air compression and liquidation are both mature technologies, but might respond to a massive inc
467.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Grid connections will be used when they are cheaper than drawing down storage. You need them anyway, and want them as a place to dump excess power when local storage is full. Storage cost is falling even faster than renewable generation did
468.
by ncmncm 4y ago
The nukes will all be mothballed by 2040, as they find it impossible to compete. That is, provided global society does not collapse first. If it does, they will be mothballed as unmaintainable, instead, if they don't blow up for the sa
469.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Wishing doesn't make it so.
470.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Fusion plants according to current projected designs would not, in fact, be appreciably safer. It is academic, because they would be 10s to 1000s of times as expensive as what they would be competing with, so will not be built. D-3He reacto
471.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Politicians have arranged to be well-insulated from what soccer moms want. Soccer moms, meanwhile, are what we call a "managed population". They vote as they are told to. Not just them, of course. We are living in the world Edward
472.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Aluminum ore is super-abundant. There is no possibility of any country anywhere on Earth running short. The only per-ton expense to produce it is for electricity, which price will be falling very, very fast. So, no, we will not run short of
473.
by ncmncm 4y ago
There is no danger or possibility of turning off oil or coal tomorrow, so it is a wholly idle concern. Concern trolling, really. Demand will fall continuously, and supply will track it. The less of it utilities use, the less sensitive they
474.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Battery cost is on the same downward trend as everything else, with new chemistries subtracting step functions. (Watch iron/air, zinc/bromine, antimony/calcium.) But for bulk storage, there are still cheaper technologies that
475.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Throwing away energy will probably not be a thing once the factories for hydrogen and ammonia generating equipment and desalination equipment have ramped up. H2, NH3, and clean H2O are so useful there will always be a market for as much as
476.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Right, it is significant that the only places shelling out for SMR are the US and Romania. Only the latter is actually planning to deploy them. (The US hands over tax money to people making them, but US utility operators don't want any
477.
by ncmncm 4y ago
No lanthanides, no platinum. Copper, silver traces. Ultra-pure silicon. Aluminum frame, glass cover.
478.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Right, the most exotic stuff in (some) solar cells is cadmium and tellurium. The cadmium is nasty but not hard to source, maybe 8 g/m^2. Perovskite cells use a thin film of mostly lead or tin, and maybe some bromine. They should be cal
479.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Right, the premise, "What makes solar panels expensive" is flawed. They are not expensive, they are astonishingly cheap. But maybe he just means that something will keep their cost above zero, which is true. But their cost per w
480.
by ncmncm 4y ago
There is, in fact, far more than enough raw materials for all the batteries that will be needed. Stationary batteries do not need lithium. And utilities can store energy in bulk without batteries, in other media. All the nukes will be mothb

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