this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
205 points (94.8% liked)
World News
31475 readers
867 users here now
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Most renewables aren't effective 100% of the time. Solar only works during the day, wind generation only works when there is wind available. Both of these aren't viable in every location on the planet and both are highly variable. Geothermal and Hydropower are both extremely location dependent, and will not work in 99% of locations.
The issue with renewables is and has always been base load generation. Solar, wind, etc. are great when they are viable, but base load that is available and can be adjusted up or down as necessary at any point in time is something they cannot do. The energy storage requirements for highly variable renewables like that are not viable with current storage technologies.
Base load is where things like coal and natural gas work extremely well, with renewables reducing load when they're available. Nuclear should be viewed as a safer and more environmentally friendly base load replacement, not something to replace renewable technologies like solar or wind.
Modern geothermal plants are much more versatile and can be used basically anywhere.
With a mixture of energy distribution (modern interconnectors can transmit 800kV or more over 800km or more with less than 3% loss) non-electrical storage such as pumped storage, and diversified renewable sources, this problem is completely mitigated - we can generate wind, solar or hydro power over 2,000km away from where it is consumed for cheaper than we could generate nuclear electricity 20km away.
Climate varies from year to year. Just in the recent years there are variation of 25% on the scale of the whole Europe. With climate change it'll probably get worse. And load balancing on the scale of a continent has never been done without nuclear and fossile.
What’s your point? If the sun stops shining everywhere for a year we’re all fucked anyways. If the wind stops blowing it’s because the sun has died. And if water decides to suddenly start disobeying the laws of physics then I think we will have bigger problems than turning on the TV.