Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing

Re:Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing by derefr on Monday September 13, 2021 @11:06AM (#28512413)

An array of small modular [nuclear] reactors (SMRs) could be set up to switch parts of the array on and off over the course of the day to scale with load. Small plants have shorter ramp-up and ramp-down times, as they move around smaller amounts of working fluid, and power lighter turbines which thus have proportionately higher friction/lower inertia.

Of course, this is a lot less efficient than having one big nuclear reactor pumping huge turbines; but it’s possibly more efficient than other forms of peak-load generation, which is the key issue.

Plus, any given individual SMR would produce a low-enough wattage to be able to reasonably divert/“dump” power from it into an practical-to-construct-anywhere sink or battery (e.g. building-sized pumped storage, rather than huge dam-sized pumped storage) for handling ramp-down discontinuities.

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Re:Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing by seanmcdirmid on Monday September 13, 2021 @12:41PM (#28513609)

As long as we are going there, backing a traditional nuclear power plant with a reservoir for pumped storage would work as well. But the land needed for such is immense and limited (though great for recreation opportunities). Nuclear could also be coupled with a desalinization plant that would use excess energy to produce clean water for later use (but there are other challenges there).

If liquid hydrogen fuel was ever useful, it could produce that with excess capacity also (but again, other issues).

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