Re:Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made fro...
by Retric on Thursday February 24, 2022 @08:36AM
(#30454463)
That’s a solid point, but it only needs 3-4 years to build. “$2 billion project, proposed by Pattern Energy Group LP, likely won’t be ready until 2026 at the earliest, if construction starts in 2023.”
Nuclear also takes 4-6 years to build but can take decades to get permission to start.
Re:Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made fro...
by DennisP on Thursday February 24, 2022 @03:56PM
(#30460165)
Of course. I used "complete" in a later sentence, which is really what I meant, and why I talked about political opposition being the main issue.
Re:Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made fro...
by ncmncm on Thursday February 24, 2022 @07:16PM
(#30462187)
Delays in interconnect construction call for local storage, which usually are needed anyway, because long-distance interconnect is not reliable or, often, strategic.
So, the main role of interconnect is to deliver power that is cheaper than replenishing your storage locally, or to use replenishing your storage faster than you could with local generation or by ship.
Far-northern climates will need to keep stockpiles of anhydrous ammonia or hydrogen to burn in gas turbine generators when transmission lines fail, probably synthesized using equatorial solar and shipped, or synthesized using transmission-line delivered hydro power. Each place will use the cheapest power available in each moment.
They're not the only ones:
> the 732-mile TransWest Express high voltage transmission line filed its first permit application in 2007, but did not receive all of the approvals until 2020. The Environmental Impact Statement alone took eight years to complete.
Local landowners tend to object to these projects. On average, they take over a decade to complete and that includes much shorter lines, which are quicker. Building underground can help with political resistance but multiplies cost by 5X to 10X.
As of 2020, over 750 GW of proposed generation, most of it wind and solar, were waiting for transmission to be built.
https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/challenges-decarbon...
China builds transmission a lot faster, and we might be able to speed things up with the SITE Act, which gives the federal government authority to override local and state resistance: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/america-...
But if our solution set can include unpopular new laws to override NIMBYism, then we can make nuclear a lot faster and cheaper, too.