Technology

59402 readers

4094 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

205

Solar modules now selling for less than €0.06/W in Europe (www.pv-magazine.com)

submitted 6 hours ago by ArtikBanana@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] frezik@midwest.social 10 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

I think there's a contingent of people who think nuclear is really, really cool. And it is cool. Splitting atoms to make power is undeniably awesome. That doesn't make it sensible, though, and they don't separate those two thoughts in their mind. Their solution is to double down on talking points designed for use against Greenpeace in the 90s rather than absorbing new information that changes the landscape.

And then there's a second group that isn't even trying to argue in good faith. They "support" nuclear knowing it won't go anywhere because it keeps fossil fuels in place.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

What isn't sensible about nuclear? For context, I'm coming from the US in an area with lots of empty space (i.e. tons of place to store radioactive waste) and without much in the way of hydro (I'm in Utah, a mountainous, desert climate). We get plenty of sun as well as plenty of snow. Nuclear should provide power at night and throughout the winter, and since ~89% of homes are heated with natural gas, we only need higher electricity production in the summer when it's hot, which is precisely what solar is great for.

So here's my thought process:

nuclear for base load demand to cover nighttime power needs, as well as the small percentage of homes using electricity for heat
solar for summer spikes in energy usage for cooling
batteries for any excess solar/nuclear generation

If we had a nuclear plant in my area, we could replace our coal plants, as well as some of our natural gas plants. If we go with solar, I don't think we have great options for electricity storage throughout the winter.

This is obviously different in the EU, but surely the nordic countries have similar problems as we do here, so why isn't nuclear more prevalent there?

[–] Devorlon@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

I'm very much in the first camp and need to remind myself whenever I think about arriving due nuclear