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First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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The problem with solar is that the sun doesn't shine overnight. The good thing with that is that we use much less power overnight than we do during the day.
If you're relying a lot on solar, you need to build a big-ass battery that you charge during the day and use at night.
Alternatively, you build a nuclear or gas plant sized to overnight usage and run them 24/7. Then, you build way smaller batteries to handle dispatchability and smoothing demand over the course of a day. Nuclear is good for baseline power, and doesn't come with the environmental costs of a gas plant. It has a niche.
HOLY SHIT THE SUN DOESN'T SHINE AT NIGHT, WHY HAVEN'T WE THOUGHT OF THIS?
Peak load is during the day, so initially it's not really a problem. Going from a grid that's 0% solar to 10% solar is really easy. The solar is going to just displace peaker plants. You don't really have to worry about night.
Going from a grid that's 70% solar to 80% solar is way more expensive, because you're probably using all that power at night.
You don't go all in on solar, that's dumb and unnecessary. The wind blows when the sun doesn't shine. We have lots of historical data on how the two would perform and how long a lull would be when neither are performing. Pad that number, put in enough storage to cover that period, and there you go.
Getting to 95% solar/wind/storage is relatively easy. Nuclear does not help this mix. It just makes it more expensive.
Big if true. Winds tend to be stronger at night though.
Or pumped hydro, compressed gas, molten salt, green hydrogen, etc.
Base load. See here: https://cleantechnica.com/2022/06/28/we-dont-need-base-load-power/