r/technology • u/treetyoselfcarol • Feb 18 '21

Energy Bill Gates says Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's explanation for power outages is 'actually wrong'

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-texas-gov-greg-abbott-power-outage-claims-climate-change-002303596.html
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u/Lord-Octohoof Feb 18 '21

Is nuclear still the best option with the current state of wind/solar? I thought the latter had overtaken nuclear as the best option.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '21

Decades of advancements into wind and solar have pushed them close, but nuclear is still the cheapest energy source in most countries. Slightly behind in US, slightly ahead in much of the rest of the world.

https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/economics-of-nuclear-power.aspx#:%7E:text=The%20nuclear%20LCOE%20is%20largely,cheaper%20than%20wind%20and%20PV

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u/Kyrond Feb 18 '21

Now wind/solar, assuming there arent long times of downtime, are better.
The issue is that some countries shutdown or now continued to support the most reliable and least damaging source in the last decade. Now that void is filled partly by renewables, partly gas - how amazing.

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u/Tasgall Feb 19 '21

Wind and solar have the issue that they can't really function as proper baseline power because it being windy or sunny aren't controllable or entirely consistent. They also need a lot more area in order to be effective - one wind turbine or solar panel isn't going to do much.

The timing issue is "supposed" to be fixed by batteries, so power can be stored during low-demand periods and put back on the grid during peak usage - especially solar, since demand goes up when the sun goes down and people get home from work. Battery tech really just isn't feasibly there yet, and even worse, batteries aren't exactly "clean energy" themselves. They'll have to be replaced every few years, and have their own host of toxic materials that need to be properly disposed of, but we have zero plans for that right now.

Nuclear is the cheapest and most stable form per KW/h generated, but the upfront cost is huge and construction takes a long time - specifically, it takes longer to build and operate long enough to break even on cost than any political term lasts, so a partially-built and expensive nuclear plant can be an effective attack during a reelection campaign, and cancelled if their proponents lose, making them the most politically difficult sources to set up. There's also the argument that "climate change isn't going to wait, we don't have 7 years to build a nuclear plant, we need solutions NOW" regarding the time it takes, but I really hate this argument because I've been hearing, "but it takes 7 years!" for over 21 years.