MattMastodon
OK so I have googled the men capacity factor and of course #nuclear has nearly 100% and #renewables only 40%.
But this just means it produces on average 40% of it's capacity. You'd need a sunny windy day to get 100%
What I've read about is a #SWB (Solar wind and battery) system with massive overcapacity
So biomass, hydro and battery can take up the slack when needed. Or gas - which has a very low mean capacity factor <10% but is usually used as a last resort
Well you haven't explained the 40% or I've not understood you.
The fact remains the Hinkley, my local #nuclear reactor is turning out to be very expensive.
This, will make it hard for any government or investor to put the case for a second #reactor, let alone a slew of them. After all, if #EDF can't deliver, who can?
And #renewables only get cheaper.
I get the point about #batteries but batteries are great at smoothing sharp peaks in demand. Everyone making tea at 8am...
The cost is £106/MWh in 2021 for Hinkley Point, the #nuclear powerstations in the UK but it's indexed linked (goes up with inflation) so. Is higher now, and only starts when the reactor goes live in 2028 (estimated) .
The reactor was going to cost £23,000,000,000 but this has jumped to £33,000,000,000 and there is a suggestion (Reuters) that it will jump again to nearer £40,000,000,000.
To me this seems expensive #energy when #renewables can cost £50/MWh. At the moment.
I struggling to find anywhere that convincingly shows #nuclear is cheap compared to #renewables. There's references to cheap 'running cost' but this probably doesn't include construction and disposal costs. The main costs tbh.
And then there is the fact that uranium comes from #Russia or #Niger.
Wind power is hardly new technology.
And let's say we treble wind power and solar and add battery and hydro storage we can upscale our energy mix to meet demand. And continue to reduce demand.
The amazing thing about this is for most of the time we will have a superabundance of energy. So energy on most days will be crazy cheap.
Our industries can use the energy at superlow cost. We could have free energy days where charging your car or washing is free.
Mostly we don't use energy at night. In the UK there is a peak in the morning. In the UK we mainly use gas to fill this. We will have to find a storage solution as nuclear can't be upscale that quickly. Gas was meant to be used just to fill the gaps but it's quickly become a staple.
We need to find a way of smoothing the graph. Energy storage is the best option in the short term.
Or we can vary use.