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Re:How do you make safe, cheap nuclear reactors? Bury them a... by dawnerd on Tuesday August 27, 2024 @11:37AM (#41368749)
Solar panels can still generate year round even when cloudy. It’s not as efficient sure but it’s not useless. That’s why you have a blend of renewables.
Re:How do you make safe, cheap nuclear reactors? Bury them a... by modo_mario on Tuesday August 27, 2024 @11:47AM (#41368848)
What renewable starts to produce more towards the winter to compensate for this especially since that's when energy consumption also rises?
Re:How do you make safe, cheap nuclear reactors? Bury them a... by butlike on Tuesday August 27, 2024 @12:33PM (#41369465)
Could it be possible to harness the weight of the snowfall, ice, or something else to power a turbine?
Re:How do you make safe, cheap nuclear reactors? Bury them a... by layer8 on Tuesday August 27, 2024 @02:30PM (#41371059)
Luckily it’s summer in one hemisphere when it’s winter in the other. Unfortunately a global grid seems infeasible in the foreseeable future.
Re:How do you make safe, cheap nuclear reactors? Bury them a... by chickenbig on Wednesday August 28, 2024 @02:51AM (#41376683)
> It’s not as efficient sure but it’s not useless. In the UK I've seen a system which produced 0.5kWh/day in mid-winter and 35kWh/day in summer. That kind of variation is hard to overbuild for.

> That’s why you have a blend of renewables. Yes, we then have to build wind turbines, plenty of under-utilised transmission (because wind is in the wrong place), methane CCGT/OCGT backup (and they need to receive capacity payments to keep them in business) and perhaps eventually electrolysers to convert excess electricity to H2 (which then have to operate at low utilisation). The overall system seems quite complicated and more complex than the first step of deploying cheap solar panels so save a bit of methane.