News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on First new US nuclear reactor in decades enters commercial operation in Georgia. Parent comment

Re:First new US nuclear reactor in decades enters commercial... by Gibbon1 on Monday July 31, 2023 @05:12PM (#36948900)
Looking this up.

https://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/faqs/powerfaq.html

> Hoover Dam generates, on average, about 4 billion kilowatt-hours. And the lake covers an area of 1,495,806 acres

Rough estimate, 2GW worth of solar produces that much in a year. And requires I think 12000 acres of land. (Open to have phat fingered the calcs)

My take away is it's not even economic anymore and requires flooding 100 times more land then a solar plant.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:First new US nuclear reactor in decades enters commercial... by ZeroGravitas on Monday July 31, 2023 @05:42PM (#36949259)
Dams still get built for non-power reasons, to manage water supplies, so adding turbines (and floating solar PV) to them might make sense, but yes I think we're now at the point where new hydro purely for energy production is going to struggle to make a case for itself against just deploying renewables and batteries and interconnects.

edit: to add some context re the Hoover dam:

> Upon becoming Secretary of Commerce in 1921, Hoover proposed the construction of a dam on the Colorado River. In addition to flood control and irrigation, it would provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and Southern California.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:First new US nuclear reactor in decades enters commercial... by KptMarchewa on Monday July 31, 2023 @06:09PM (#36949568)
It's not exactly relevant how much solar produces per year - it's very important _when_ the energy can be produced and how much you can control that.
[ Parent | on HN ]