Re:Three Mile Island nuclear plant restart in Microsoft AI p...
by akamaka on Friday September 20, 2024 @10:51AM
(#41602573)
> people will build stuff like aluminum smelters and desalination plants to use the excess energy, and electricity will cost money again.
But will electricity cost enough to justify the huge upfront cost of nuclear plants?
If we have the wealth to build capital-intensive projects that are marginally cost effective, it might be easier to build smelters and desalination plants that only run at 40% capacity, when the sun is out.
> That's not how this works though, energy abundance means industrial abundance, more energy availability (for cheap) would simply mean that demand will scale to meet the output.
If the price of electricity is negative, people will build stuff like aluminum smelters and desalination plants to use the excess energy, and electricity will cost money again.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
> In economics, the Jevons paradox (/ˈdʒɛvənz/; sometimes Jevons effect) occurs when technological progress increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the falling cost of use induces increases in demand enough that resource use is increased, rather than reduced.