Re:Nuclear Energy Project in Idaho Is Canceled
by Retric on Thursday November 09, 2023 @08:27PM
(#38213883)
Yea, UK solar is still offsetting natural gas so it’s viable.
One issue for significantly higher UK solar production is they use more electricity in the winter. January 2023 was 26 TWh where July 2022 was only 20 TWh which is the opposite of solar’s peaks.
They can import from France, but France also has higher demand in the winter: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107089/electricity-cons...
It’s only when you’re far enough south to see significant summer AC demand that it flips.
Re:Nuclear Energy Project in Idaho Is Canceled
by tomatocracy on Friday November 10, 2023 @02:29AM
(#38216139)
Yes, and this is when the vast majority of homes are still heated using gas central heating. If we switch away from that to heat pumps+resistive heating in anything like meaningful amounts, this difference will get much more pronounced.
You can also look at Spain - the CfDs aren't really comparable since the way CfDs are used there is different but LCOE is probably in the 40s-50s EUR/MWh for new build solar PV. But there are now meaningful curtailment issues in some places due to grid capacity there so developers will probably be working to higher numbers.