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A comment on Wind farm in Germany is being dismantled to expand coal mine. Parent comment

Re:Wind farm in Germany is being dismantled to expand coal mine by pclmulqdq on Monday May 01, 2023 @10:22PM (#35782505)
You don't have to load-follow when you can use the power to mine bitcoins. /s

In all seriousness, nuclear power plants are also very controllable within a certain bound, you just can't turn them completely off or else they take a long time to turn back on. Control of power output is what reactor control rods are for. Coal power is similar - you can control the temperature of the boiler but you can't stop the turbine completely if you want to turn it back on any time soon.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Wind farm in Germany is being dismantled to expand coal mine by legulere on Monday May 01, 2023 @10:44PM (#35782660)
Nuclear costs are predominantly fixed costs though. Reducing output makes electricity from nuclear even more expensive. On top of that it leads to faster deterioration.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Wind farm in Germany is being dismantled to expand coal mine by pclmulqdq on Monday May 01, 2023 @10:56PM (#35782739)
You're busy looking for a perfect solution where there is none. The same arguments about upfront costs and usage-based depreciation apply to batteries, too, for example. They would apply to coal and natural gas plants too except that their fuel is really expensive per kWh.
[ Parent | on HN ]