Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be

Re:Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be by cucucfudud on Wednesday April 26, 2017 @01:34PM (#14205140)

i read an article that the nordics actually gets as much sun as southern europe, if you count the whole year. Its as good a place for solar as anywhere else.

The summers are sunny all day and night. The problem becomes how to store the energy until the dark winter months.

(There are solar panels that doesnt need heat just light)

Edit: http://www.nordicenergy.org/article/solar-power-at-the-arcti...

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Re:Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be by Robotbeat on Wednesday April 26, 2017 @01:46PM (#14205253)

The seasonal variation of solar power is a big problem if you want to rely mostly on solar power, though. Seasonal storage is insanely expensive with any of the usual methods. I mean, let's say to get daily storage, you need 8 hours of batteries. To get 4 or 5 weeks of storage, you need more like 800 hours of batteries. It's literally 100x the cost.

So yeah, if you want to run on natural gas for half the year, then solar in the nordics isn't bad.

But luckily the nordics have lots of hydro and don't need any gas or even solar.

But on the equator, the seasonal variation is small. The Global South will have a big energy cost advantage as solar costs keep dropping.

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