771–780 of 818 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rendering large areas uninhabitable is plenty of harm. And death is not the only detrimental health impact.
Santa susana is bad and something I’m even vocal about, but that was nuclear experiments, not nuclear power
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, it obviously is a global failure. It exists in places where people can be forced to pay for it. There is not a single competitive energy market where merchant nuclear reactors have been built to compete in that market. That's because it's just too expensive. Sure, reactors have been built to exploit monopolies, and where political considerations trump economic ones. That's nothing to be proud of.
Just because you repeat it again and again, and use the word "obvious", nuclear power does not become a 'global failure'. I fail to see any arguments in your posts, just NUCLEAR BAD slogans.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany was dependent on fossil imports all along. What has changed is they import less, now, than when they ran the nukes. They will import decreasing amounts as they build out more renewables. It is a fact that the nukes shut down would have needed a great deal of expensive work to continue operating. Germany elected to spend the money on wind, instead, and it bought them more actually delivered wattage than the sh…
Are you really arguing that they'd import more gas now if they hadn't shut down the nuclear plants? Everyone including Germans have understood by now that phasing out nuclear was a mistake, but you still repeat that no, gas dependency good, nuclear power independence bad.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s actually not a good idea at all. When you do the math ( or rather the physics) gravity batteries need so much mass and height to compete with other technologies that it’s just not worth it. Except if water, pipes and pumps are used, as water is heavy, and pipes and pumps can transport a lot of it very efficiently and cheaply. That’s called pumped hydro storage and is currently the #1 grid scale storage in the wo…
The downside of pumped water, of course, is you need a hydroelectric dam and there are not many sites suitable for that. Those dams also come with significant environmental disruption. The weight system only requires part of a hillside, has a pretty small environmental footprint, and there are lots and lots of hills.
The rail system needs maintained rolling stock and maintained rails. The mineshaft method is overwhelmingly cheaper and more reliable, because all that must be kept working is an electric winch. There are lots and lots of disused mineshafts.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pumped hydro is far, far less geographically specific than always assumed. This is partly because it needs no watershed, and partly because transmission lines mean it need not be local. Anyway pumped hydro is only one of many equally viable alternatives. All will be used. Eventually which ones are cheapest will become clear.
I think my assumption with pumped hydro is that there must be something holding it back because it's been mature for a long time, so if it were as useful and scalable as you say, I think it would have been scaled a lot more by now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Utility scale solar is greater than small scale ( https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=50357
> Utility scale solar is greater than small scale ( Your graph shows in total generated energy per year it's roughly even--- not in nameplate power . Because the capacity factor is worse, you need a lot more nameplate power at non-utility installations to get the same energy out. > This is good, because utility scale solar is cheaper per unit output than small scale solar. Yup. Small scale solar really needs to stop,…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Utility scale solar is greater than small scale ( Your graph shows in total generated energy per year it's roughly even--- not in nameplate power . Because the capacity factor is worse, you need a lot more nameplate power at non-utility installations to get the same energy out. > This is good, because utility scale solar is cheaper per unit output than small scale solar. Yup. Small scale solar really needs to stop,…
You would forbid me to buy panels?
Better that production go to installations that have good capacity factors than to your roof.
It's also time to reconsider how good an idea net metering at retail electrical prices is. Grandfather existing customers, but ... sure looks like we need a grid, so maybe only buy power from new end customers at wholesale rates (this further incents storage!)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you want to eliminate your dependence on natural gas, then, the only feasible option is nuclear. no. you need gas for nuclear AND renewables. it really does not matter. it's bullshit to argue against it unless you show the world a way to have an on/off button for a nuclear plant. (if you do, you might be very very very rich)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load-following_power_plant#Nuc...
> Load-following plants are typically in between base load and peaking power plants in efficiency, speed of start-up and shut-down, construction cost, cost of electricity and capacity factor.
as said, they don't remove gas and it's stupid to assume since your article specially talks about france which is heavy on gas for peaks.
Everyone arguing over replacing currently energy usage like that will be even close to enough, it won't. Personally im a nuclear fan and I think many of the costs are artificially high by preventing nuclear industry growth and bad legislation that outlaws things like breeder reactors, that said we are going to need wind and solar even with massive nuclear investment just by the total power we need to produce to make…
Meanwhile the price keeps rising...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a number of battery chemistries more cheap and even efficient than Lithium-based, but with lower energy density. High energy density is important for handheld devices, for flying devices, even for cars. But stationary energy storage can be much heavier and bulkier per kWh stored, as long as it's cheaper, and can sustain more than a few thousand recharge cycles. Lithium batteries have the momentum and are dro…
Since you are 100% certain that such technology will emerge in an economical viable state to solve the storage problem for Europe, could you please provide a date so we can draft a EU law that forbids burning of fossil fuel in the European market by that date. If you can do it by this winter it would solve inflation, enable a complete sanction packet against Russian oil and gas, solve several political conflicts with…