| ▲ | Luc a day ago |
| Of course a 1960's design isn't adapted to current weather conditions. That doesn't mean the whole technology is useless, like so many commenters imply. Any new build can and will include cooling adapted to hotter conditions. |
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| ▲ | one33seven a day ago | parent | next [-] |
| There's a nuclear reaction in the sky beaming free energy to us, let's just use that |
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| ▲ | chpatrick a day ago | parent | next [-] | | Hungary is already using that (today we were 90% carbon-free thanks to solar), the problem is what to do when it gets dark. | | |
| ▲ | ccozan a day ago | parent | next [-] | | Batteries? Starting this year, in Romania you cannot put new PV capacity online without the storage for it, is mandatory. Possibly for existing ones, but I am not sure. | | |
| ▲ | ifwinterco 14 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yes, absolutely colossal amounts of batteries though - what if it’s quite hot but also cloudy for 5 days in a row? You either have to significantly oversize the PV (easier said than done, when its energy density is already not that high per m2), or have enough batteries to last for multiple days of full load. If you do the maths that’s a lot of batteries | | |
| ▲ | Kon5ole 10 hours ago | parent [-] | | >what if it’s quite hot but also cloudy for 5 days in a row? The main idea is to then import power from somewhere sunny and/or windy or mountainous, using money you saved when they had the rain and you had the sun. Batteries and other storage mechanisms will gradually reduce the need for doing so, but aiming to entirely eliminate all need for cooperation with others seems a bit paranoid. |
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| ▲ | chpatrick a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | They're being installed but it's going to take a while. | | | |
| ▲ | imoverclocked a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Mechanical ones so we aren’t left with a waste disaster in 10-20 years? | |
| ▲ | pojzon 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | In Poland you cannot own big capacity storage because it makes you independent from the grid and Gov does not want that. So you can have storage, but not too much, only as much to still be dependant on the grid. See the hypocrisy here? |
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| ▲ | dofm a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | "the problem is what to do when it gets dark" Batteries (or pumped storage hydro, which is more like a gravity-driven capacitor) | | |
| ▲ | riffraff a day ago | parent [-] | | Hungary is flat as hell, there's nowhere to build enough hydro storage. But yeah batteries would be nice. | | |
| ▲ | dofm a day ago | parent | next [-] | | AFAIK the mountains are about as high as Wales? It looks like there's a 600MW storage scheme in the planning stages. That's about a third of the capacity of Wales's largest system (which is the biggest in Europe) and about twice the capacity of the second system. It's a meaningful contribution I would have thought. | |
| ▲ | JeremyNT a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | You can do low(er) head pumped hydro storage [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludington_Pumped_Storage_Power... | | |
| ▲ | notabotiswear 8 hours ago | parent [-] | | Can't speak for Hungary specifically, but the problem with flat terrain wrt hydro storage isn't just elevation difference - which can be offset with flowrate - it's the large surface area to storage and to depth ratios. Large lake means more losses, mainly due to evaporation, but seepage is also to be expected. Now put this fact in the thread's context: water shortage/stress... | | |
| ▲ | dofm 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | > Now put this fact in the thread's context: water shortage/stress… But doesn't adding a large reservoir mitigate both? You're not pumping the entire reservoir up and down hill every day. |
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| ▲ | RunSet 21 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Collect solar power in orbit (where sunlight is uninterrupted) and microwave[0] it to earth. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power_transfer#Microw... | | |
| ▲ | derdi 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | I'm fairly sure that when it's dark where I am (because I'm in the shadow cast by Earth), it's also dark in orbit above me (because it's in the shadow cast by Earth). |
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| ▲ | shalom1112 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | [dead] |
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| ▲ | hamper653 a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | Calling the sun’s fusion "a nuclear reaction" in a discussion about fission reactors is a bit silly. > let's just use that Also, let’s use both? |
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| ▲ | exploderate a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It's not matter of "can", it's a matter of "how much does it cost?" and "who pays for that?". |
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| ▲ | expedition32 a day ago | parent [-] | | Precisely why the Netherlands does not have nuclear power plants. Cheap coal. Cheap oil. Cheap gas. And now cheap wind and solar. They just absolutely cannot math the math which leaves ideology and this ain't France. | | |
| ▲ | pseudony 8 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | That math leaves out externalities when pricing gas, oil and coal. You may have heard of a few fires going on in Europe in addition to nuclear plants shutting down? Beyond that, those resources are also the lifeline for a dictatorship in the east causing increase defense spending. There definitely is no such thing as cheap gas, oil or coal for Europeans, all things considered | |
| ▲ | jacquesm a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_the_Netherlan... |
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| ▲ | riffraff a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The one that shut down in Romania is a CANDU, built in the 80s. |
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| ▲ | cucumber3732842 a day ago | parent | prev [-] |
| [flagged] |
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| ▲ | roenxi a day ago | parent [-] | | You're probably going to struggle to come up with a motive for that behaviour. It is much more likely that they simply aren't very thoughtful. Complex webs of deception in a public argument are certainly possible, but it generally relies on some group having a clear financial incentive to misdirect. That doesn't exist in the nuclear debate. | | |
| ▲ | one33seven a day ago | parent | next [-] | | > a clear financial incentive to misdirect. That doesn't exist in the nuclear debate. It's very obviously not in the interests of "big fossile" to go either solar or nuclear. | | |
| ▲ | roenxi a day ago | parent [-] | | Because HN was a forum for oil executives to gather and discuss prices? Big fossil isn't in the room here. It would surprise nobody if there were 0 people in the comments who even work in a fossil fuel company. |
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| ▲ | cucumber3732842 a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | >You're probably going to struggle to come up with a motive for that behaviour. No, I'm not. Not in the slightest. Number in top right go up. Monkey brain feel goooooood when that happen. Monkey brain keep doing behavior that make that happen. > It is much more likely that they simply aren't very thoughtful. They're plenty thoughtful. They'll contrive all sorts of arcane logic, plausibly deniable lies and witty turns of phrase (some of which are quite impressive). What they're not is self aware (the dishonesty is a byproduct of that). > Complex webs of deception Those are possible but I don't think that's what's happening here. > but it generally relies on some group having a clear financial incentive to misdirect. Internet fanboys work for free. They have no financial incentive. Therefore we fall back to the monkey brain incentive. |
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