Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power
by epistasis on Sunday February 21, 2021 @11:55AM
(#26214978)
Recycling is just getting started, but so far the most expensive part of recycling is shipping the panels to the recycling plant. Which is to say, that end of life recycling will not be a significant cost in any way.
Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power
by bryanlarsen on Sunday February 21, 2021 @11:27AM
(#26214681)
Base load power is unnecessary.
The only type of power that's required is dispatchable power. If you have enough dispatchable power to meet peak demands you don't need anything else. For example, the northern towns served by a diesel generator. Other types of power are optional, but should be thrown into the mix for cost, reliability or environmental reasons.
It is though, unless we had a major breakthrough in the last decade i'm not aware of, you can't just "plug in" 1 TW/h of solar pannels on a power grid when you need to. You can however start a generator, an eoliene, a turbine. PV don't offer that, although other kind of solar can.
Could you explain what units you were trying to use there? TW/h makes no sense.
Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power
by vlovich123 on Sunday February 21, 2021 @11:32AM
(#26214738)
My (perhaps erroneous) understanding nuclear is the only power source that can generate the power/heat that many very heavy industrial use cases need can’t be supplanted with renewables, no matter how inexpensive/efficient they are.
That’s why countries like France have significantly lower coal usage whereas Germany has higher, even though both have similar levels of renewables.
That's obviously not true, since electricity can always be converted to heat.
Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power
by toomuchtodo on Sunday February 21, 2021 @01:38PM
(#26215889)
In many ways. Resistive, heat pumps, and electrolysis of hydrogen or production of ammonia to be burned.
Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power
by afterburner on Sunday February 21, 2021 @11:21AM
(#26214616)
> impossibility to work as a baseline
Not true. Just overbuild it, and make sure your grid is large enough to transfer power between areas or just store it. Still cheaper than nuclear.
What's "pilotability" in this context?
You can make electricity usage predictions, depending on the time of the day, and the time of the year. Reversible dams pump water at night (in France at least), or when our northern neighbors have a bit to much wind power and need help dispatching this power without disconnecting their wind plants. This is what i mean (i honestly thought the word existed in english, it doesnt, sorry :/)
Solar is good if the population is mature enough to accept the cost of sending PV to a recycling plant. And as long as it doesnt go past 50% of the energy production (you NEED a baseline of 30 to 40% at the very least)