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by criley2 1476 days ago
Solar is a perfect solution for like 1/3 of the world for like 1/3 of the day.

Batteries though, current batteries are a horrible solution.

It's funny that this threads main objection to nuclear is waste/mining/etc but the solar battery revolution generates some far worse environmental effects getting all those rare earth minerals. Compared to the tiny amounts of fuel needed for reactors, the sheer amount of metal needed for worldwide grid solar batteries is astronomical.

2 comments

> It's funny that this threads main objection to nuclear is waste/mining/etc

Is it?

I got the impression the discussion has moved to recognising that nuclear is too expensive, not flexible, and looking at the slow-motion-train-wreck that is the EPR project, new reactor projects are likely going to be very late[0][1][2] and hugely over budget.

[0] https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Fresh-delay-to-F... [1] https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/finlands-olkiluoto-... [2] https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/CGN-takes-Taisha...

Mentioning batteries can only distract from sensible discussion, because only the tiniest fraction of utility-scale storage will ever be batteries.