corytheidiot t1_iu92tdv wrote on October 29, 2022 at 2:44 PM

Reply to comment by pulsed19 in Poland picks U.S. offer for its first nuclear power plant -PM by SunfireGaren

I am curious myself. My thought is that you use nuclear to replace coal for base load generation. Then you throw in renewable with storage to replace peaker plants. This being for the mid term.

Long term would be increasing renewables and expanding storage systems, hopefully, to the point that you could idle the nuclear plants with the end goal of total phase out. (If deemed feasible at the time.)

These are just my thoughts using tech available today, possibly with some expected iterative improvements. So, nothing as revolutionary as nuclear fusion.

lostparis t1_iu93vaq wrote on October 29, 2022 at 2:52 PM

> My thought is that you use nuclear to replace coal for base load generation.

It is better to replace coal now than in 15+ years time. Nuclear is super slow to get on line with huge upfront and afterlife costs.

corytheidiot t1_iu9ttt6 wrote on October 29, 2022 at 5:58 PM

I don't mean sit idle in the short term. Keep telling renewables as much as possible.

That is why I was conveying my thoughts by stating mid term and long term.

For renewables to replace base load (coal plants and nuclear plants) we have to build the infrasture for energy storage. We absolutely should be doing that now. Pumped hydro, batteries, and hydrogen are the ones I immediately know.

lostparis t1_iu9vivg wrote on October 29, 2022 at 6:10 PM

> Pumped hydro, batteries, and hydrogen are the ones I immediately know.

There are some nice heat storage ideas as well as some gas pressurisation/liquification ones that have real potential. Plus odd ball things like flywheels. We can probably come up with better ones. Pumped hydro needs geology we are lacking for anything big. Batteries tend to be expensive due to materials but we may have some options here.

Energy storage is what we really need. Once we get that then most arguments against renewables are dead.

We also need to invest in energy movement (the grid) because this is not up to task. We have to close down energy generation regularly due to this. Also it should be simple for small providers (including individuals) to be able to feed power into the grid.