Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II...
by bombcar on Friday September 30, 2022 @06:57PM
(#33041804)
Meanwhile California has increased population and kept their energy production relatively stable. We may have reached a peak.
Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II...
by parineum on Friday September 30, 2022 @08:34PM
(#33042525)
California's power grid is not in great shape.
Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II...
by VintageCool on Saturday October 01, 2022 @12:19AM
(#33043831)
With the increase in EVs, AC, and heat pumps, I'd expect electricity demand to increase in the next decade.
Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II...
by adrianN on Saturday October 01, 2022 @01:24AM
(#33044130)
Electricity demand will surely increase. Primary power demand on the other hand will most likely go down. An EV is about 80% efficient from solar panel to movement, an ICE is only about 30% efficient from gas to movement (and you have to invest a whole bunch of energy to get gas into tank starting from oil underground). Similarly, heating with a heat pump is about three times more energy efficient than heating with oil or gas.
Re:Why are nuclear power construction costs so high? Part II...
by acidburnNSA on Friday September 30, 2022 @10:18PM
(#33043169)
Today we use about 600 exajoules of primary energy per year. The sun hits us with about 3.8 million exajoules per year. 1.03^1000 is a factor of 7e12. So under that assumption, the earth would be making 1 billion times more power than we receive from the sun.
I can pretty much guarantee that we won't be scaling at 3%/yr for the next 1000 years. And if we do, that's an argument for lots more nuclear fission, and a lot of fusion too. Because the solar-derived flows (wind, solar, hydro, biofuel, fossil fuel) won't be able to keep up even if we covered 100% of the earth with solar panels!
Calculating "years of energy" based off of current usage seems silly to me given that global energy usage has been rising exponentially for centuries.
For example, if you assume a 3% per-year increase in global energy usage, 12 billion years becomes a bit less than 1000 years.