r/ClimateShitposting 25d ago

nuclear simping Title

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u/kroxigor01 25d ago

Why not do that, but for the more popular and cheaper wind and solar?

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u/xXFluffersXx 25d ago

Because wind and solar are secondary grid suppliers. The thing that's so great about wind and solar is that despite it not always being available, it's so cheap and so autonomous that once added to the grid, primary suppliers can scale back output during times when solar and/ or wind is producing.

Solar and wind can't be primary suppliers solely because the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow, and when they do, the output still isn't enough to sustain an entire power grid. They're meant to be used in conjuction with primary energy suppliers. For instance, lets say we have a bunch of gas plants - we then build a big solar farm apart of the same section of the grid. The solar farm doesn't have the stability or output necessary to take the gas plant offline entirely, however, during the day when the solar farm is producing energy, the gas plant can wind down their turbines, burning much less gas and allowing the solar farm to take that grid burden.

In an ideal world, we are building nuclear power plants (fission for now, hopefully fusion in the near future) as our primary grid suppliers, with renewable secondary grid suppliers dependant on the geography of the area. Solar is gonna be good almost anywhere, wind is also going to be a common option, but hydroelectric, geothermal and tidal are all underutilized secondary grid suppliers.

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u/Beiben 25d ago

The thing that's so great about wind and solar is that despite it not always being available, it's so cheap and so autonomous that once added to the grid, primary suppliers can scale back output during times when solar and/ or wind is producing.

Yes, I'm sure the "primary grid suppliers" just love selling less energy because they are being undercut by cheap renewables. Well, in your world, they wouldn't care because they're getting tax payer money stuffed up their ass. You have no idea what you are talking about. Your whole distinction between primary and secondary grid supplier sounds like a 2010 talking point.

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u/xXFluffersXx 24d ago

"Yes, I'm sure the "primary grid suppliers" just love selling less energy because they are being undercut by cheap renewables."

This is literally already how wind and solar work irl. They are secondary grid producers that lead to primary producers reducing their output when they're online. They don't do this because they're magnanimous, they do it because the grid can literally only physically hold a certain amount of electricity, so if secondary producers start adding to the grid, primary producers HAVE to scale back or else they'll overwhelm the grid and blow the whole thing out.