Re:First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in opera...
by cesarb on Wednesday December 27, 2023 @06:54PM
(#38788346)
> The simple question to ask yourself is why do battery installations always get quoted in units of power - GW - and not units of energy, GWH - which is what we actually use?
For the same reason gas power plants and hydroelectric power plants are quoted in MW units, and not on the size of their fuel tanks or reservoir volume (converted to MWh as appropriate): it's the most important number for balancing the grid. If you have 90 GW of power demand on the grid at a given moment, you need 90 GW of power generation on the grid at that same moment (simplifying a bit, since transmission constraints mean you also need some of that power generation to be at specific places).
Re:First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in opera...
by XorNot on Wednesday December 27, 2023 @07:49PM
(#38788698)
Thus answering the challenge: they're not storage. They're grid stabilization utilities. Because no one expects to run them for more then 30 minutes to an hour while they bring dispatchable generation online.
Which means they're irrelevant to the idea of grid scale energy storage, because they don't meaningfully store anything.
Re:First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in opera...
by ViewTrick1002 on Wednesday December 27, 2023 @08:19PM
(#38788880)
Last year you said they couldn't even meet enough demand for the grid. Now it is 30 minutes to an hour. Next year it will be hours.
How does it feel when the Overton windows moves while nuclear is stuck in the past?
The simple question to ask yourself is why do battery installations always get quoted in units of power - GW - and not units of energy, GWH - which is what we actually use?
(The answer is: because they're terrible for it. Batteries hold about 3x they're rated power value as energy - which means the 10 GW or whatever someone quotes is good for about 3 hours at that output. Great for grid stability, expensive and useless for long term storage).