Since you use China as a comparison for solar: China builds 1.4GW nuclear power plants in 5 years for $3.5 bn.

And of course the capacity factor for PV is about 10%, so you need 10x the capacity to get the same output even on average. Never mind that you get nothing at night, and very little in winter.

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g8oz 3 days ago | parent [-]

Not 10%. It's a 25% capacity factor for utility scale solar in the US. I'm assuming it's a similar number for China.

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mpweiher 3 days ago | parent [-]

In Germany it has now dropped to 8%.

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g8oz 3 days ago | parent [-]

>>It is important to note that within Germany’s generation data, Ember’s analysis has identified an unusual trend of declining solar irradiance-adjusted performance over the past several years. We do not yet have a definitive explanation for why this is, but it could be related to challenges in measuring behind-the-meter solar generation, exacerbated recently by high levels of residential battery storage. Regardless of the cause, it is possible that there is under-reporting of German solar generation.

- European electricity review 2024 by Ember

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/european-electricit...

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mpweiher 2 days ago | parent [-]

It was 10% before, the recent drops in fleet capacity factors are explained by cannibalization/curtailment and the best locations already gone.

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ViewTrick1002 2 days ago | parent [-]

Which will be immediately unlocked as storage gets built.

In Germany 51 GW is already approved with another 400 GW/661 GWh in interconnection queue.

https://www.ess-news.com/2025/11/12/german-network-operators...

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mpweiher 13 hours ago | parent [-]

Er, no it won't.

https://energybadboys.substack.com/p/the-baseload-solar-beat...

	▲	ViewTrick1002 12 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Why did you try to completely change the subject to "baseload" solar rather than your previous point of "cannibalizing/curtailment"? I will take that as an admission that storage will unlock the curtailed/cannibalized renewables and further reduce the economic outlook for any fuel driven electricity generation like coal, gas and nuclear power.