[Swenrekcah]

> Is it cheaper than demand shaping/wind/solar/grid-scale batteries though? That's the real question.

I believe that’s the wrong question to ask. We need nuclear to be cheaper and more attractive than coal and oil (and later natural gas).

If grid scale batteries ever become a viable thing and cheaper than nuclear then that’s just great and eventually the nuclear plants can be phased out in favour of those.

In the meantime however we need to get rid of coal and oil, because that’s where the overwhelmingly most emissions are.

[pydry]

>If grid scale batteries ever become a viable thing and cheaper than nuclear then that’s just great

Ok. So, what if that already happened?

>In the meantime however

The meantime is past. Arguably it lasted until latest 2020 which was the last time grid scale batteries were expensive. 2014 was the last time solar or wind were expensive.

Meanwhile, if you tried to commission a new nuclear plant now it wouldnt be running until 2030 earliest and possibly later (hinkley point C will take 20 years).

A new battery/wind/solar farm usually takes a year and theyre still plunging in price.

[Swenrekcah]

If that already happened then that's great. It's the first I'm hearing about it but I don't work in the sector so that's fair.

Nevertheless nuclear energy is a steady and reliable source of large amounts of energy, just like coal and oil. By having a few of those, the grid operator can greatly decrease their need for grid-scale batteries, thus enabling more grids to deploy them faster, paving the way for more solar/wind.

This is not a competition between renewables and nuclear. They aren't enemies.

CO2 is the enemy, we must focus on that.

Point well taken about how long the nuclear projects take, that's why natural gas a bridge is important.

I want purely renewable energy just as much as you but I'm highly skeptical that it is possible or even desirable to build out all the capacity we need in just solar/wind/hydro in the short amount of time we have. Everything that helps, helps. Until the point where it doesn't and then that's the time to address that.

[pydry]

>This is not a competition between renewables and nuclear. They aren't enemies.

They kind of are. They are competing for limited investment and they are not complementary.

Nuclear power is not a "battery". It's an extraordinarily expensive way to produce a fixed amount of power whether it's needed or not.

You trade ~20% extra reliability for 3x the cost.

>I'm highly skeptical that it is possible or even desirable to build out all the capacity we need in just solar/wind/hydro in the short amount of time we have

Nothing can do it in the short amount of time that we have to save us from 2C.

Diverting limited resources to nuclear won't speed the transition up though, it'll slow it down.

[Swenrekcah]

I guess we just disagree then. I think we have plenty of resources to do both.

Government might better focus on clamping down on frivolous waste of resources such as cryptos (both waste of hardware, energy and most valuably talent).