Activists who embrace nuclear power

Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power by cygx on Sunday February 21, 2021 @11:34AM (#26214763)

Nuclear reactors don't make sense as peaker plants, hence are not a battery replacement as such.

You're correct that one should factor in the cost of storage if one wants to considers renewables as an alternative to nuclear for providing base load power.

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Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power by rhodozelia on Sunday February 21, 2021 @08:38PM (#26219651)

Granted, I’ve never worked on a natural gas fired turbine, but I imagine every generator given the option would prefer to run consistentently at maximum output as that is how they would get the maximum ROI.

Hydro plants can adjust output but it changes river levels and flows with environmental consequences.

I imagine nuclear plants could use control rods to generate less power if they had to?

Or if you have the nuclear power because you need it anyway in case it isn’t sunny/windy but it is a sunny and windy day how do you decide if solar/wind or nuclear should be curtailed? Both have near zero marginal cost.

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Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power by hntrader on Sunday February 21, 2021 @12:50PM (#26215461)

Thanks. Any ideas how storage impacts the total cost of using only solar+wind?

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Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power by pfdietz on Sunday February 21, 2021 @01:29PM (#26215792)

https://model.energy/

Play with the assumptions and see for yourself.

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Re:Activists who embrace nuclear power by cygx on Sunday February 21, 2021 @01:00PM (#26215543)

Not off-hand, no. Also note that such figures will be estimates: We've yet to raise the share of renewables to levels where such costs really become significant...

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