Ardubal@mastodon.xyz 7 months ago
@ajsadauskas @australianpolitics
What would »grid scale solar & storage« cost, and how long would it take?
This is the competition:
1. Nuclear power plants
2. Storage of the same scale, filled by solar of the same scale
No one in the whole world has ever built (2). There is no mature industry, and no technology even matching the only grid scale storage we have so far (pumped hydro).
For (1), there are several international players with established designs.
I wouldn't stop either one.
Lats@aus.social 7 months ago
@Ardubal @ajsadauskas @australianpolitics I think the issue with nuclear reactors in the Australian context is that we have no nuclear power construction industry, we don’t have a workforce, we don’t have the education system geared to produce a workforce nor are there standardised proven working designs that we can cookie cutter. The NIMBY battles haven’t started yet nor the court challenges. We need to replace coal in the next 10 years and to do it the nuclear way will take 20 to 30 years if at all. All the while power produced by nuclear reactors will become even more expensive than renewables and is certainly not economic.
Other than that, there isn’t a problem with nuclear reactors. The LNP approach of pivoting to nuclear by defunding renewables is really ludicrous as we can’t afford to wait.
#nuclear #nuclearenergy #renewables #renewableenergy
InfoMgmtExec@mastodon.social 7 months ago
#NuclearMadness Down Under. A product of #NuclearBullshit being spewed by an an untold number of #NuclearGrifters. #JustSayNO. @Lats @Ardubal @ajsadauskas @australianpolitics
Ardubal@mastodon.xyz 7 months ago
@Lats @ajsadauskas @australianpolitics The problem as I see it is that solar+wind+storage alone will not get you there ever. It will go up to 40% solar+wind, then maybe 10—30% with storage+solar+wind (depending on your technooptimism). And then you start replacing everything built every 20 to 30 years. Buys time, but not sustainable.
What you say is true: you need to build up the entire nuclear industry. International cooperation for bootstrapping will be important. Better get started.
Lats@aus.social 7 months ago
@Ardubal @ajsadauskas @australianpolitics the key to this is that it’s not an either or situation. If we want to do nuclear then it can’t be by defunding renewables like that LNP and many populist pundits want. We need to decarbonise our economy as quickly as we can. Stuffing around trying to derail renewables really is a recipe for disaster.
Ardubal@mastodon.xyz 7 months ago
@Lats @ajsadauskas @australianpolitics
Well, right now there is much more derailing of nuclear in the hope of solving storage than derailing solar+wind in the hope of re-enacting a nuclear buildup (like in France, Japan, Germany (1970s-80s), Ontario, China, India…) going on.
Get both on the road, they do not much compete for resources. It will be faster than only one.