<story><title>Macron says France will build new nuclear energy reactors</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/macron-says-france-will-build-more-nuclear-energy-reactors-2021-11-09/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Manuel_D</author><text>Comparing the cost of a non-intermittent energy source with an intermittent energy source excluding the cost of storage is comparing apples to oranges. Solar and wind are cheap, until you saturate the energy market during peak production hours. Then it gets exorbitantly expensive. The only viable storage solution at the moment is hydroelectric, which is geographically limited. Global lithium ion battery output for a whole year doesn&amp;#x27;t even add up to 1 hour&amp;#x27;s worth of the USA&amp;#x27;s electricity consumption.&lt;p&gt;When probed on how to address intermittency, many wind and solar advocates propose things like hydrogen storage, giant flywheels, compressed air, or other solutions that are currently in the prototyping stage and have yet to actually be deployed to a grid and demonstrate viability.&lt;p&gt;This is the chief advantage of nuclear power: it works and we have over half a century of production experience with it. Betting on one of those storage solutions panning out is betting on a big unknown.</text></item><item><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not a comeback until you push the first kwh to the grid for the price you said you&amp;#x27;d build the new generator for. Japan turning back on mothballed reactors is a Big Deal (and a quick win for avoiding CO2 emissions), but getting new reactors built in less than a decade or for less than billons of dollars is where the proof lies. Talk and promises are cheap, action has a cost and can&amp;#x27;t be faked.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lazard.com&amp;#x2F;perspective&amp;#x2F;levelized-cost-of-energy-levelized-cost-of-storage-and-levelized-cost-of-hydrogen&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lazard.com&amp;#x2F;perspective&amp;#x2F;levelized-cost-of-energy-...&lt;/a&gt; (Lazard’s latest annual Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (LCOE 15.0) shows the continued cost-competitiveness of certain renewable energy technologies on a subsidized basis and the marginal cost of coal, nuclear and combined cycle gas generation.)</text></item><item><author>1cvmask</author><text>The Chinese have committed to building over 150 new nuclear reactors. The British government will subsidize Rolls Royce. Japan will reactivate over 30 nuclear reactors.&lt;p&gt;It seems this is the biggest energy story of the year. The comeback of nuclear energy.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;smallcaps.com.au&amp;#x2F;china-supercharge-uranium-race-150-new-nuclear-reactors&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;smallcaps.com.au&amp;#x2F;china-supercharge-uranium-race-150-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The HN discussion on the China story:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29151741&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29151741&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Japan reactivating nuclear reactors:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mainichi.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;20210501&amp;#x2F;p2a&amp;#x2F;00m&amp;#x2F;0op&amp;#x2F;007000c&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mainichi.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;20210501&amp;#x2F;p2a&amp;#x2F;00m&amp;#x2F;0op&amp;#x2F;00...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;UK. Rolls-Royce gets funding to develop mini nuclear reactors:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;business-59212983&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;business-59212983&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>WalterBright</author><text>The simplest energy storage solution is your hot water heater. Turning on everyone&amp;#x27;s hot water heater when there is surplus electricity, and turning them off when there&amp;#x27;s a deficit, is a very low cost solution.&lt;p&gt;The next level is using residential HVAC systems the same way. Comfortable temperatures are a range, so heating&amp;#x2F;cooling can push the temps to one end of the range, and when there is less electricity available, they can drift to the other end.&lt;p&gt;The charger for your electric car is another very practical sink for cheap electricity.&lt;p&gt;This is accomplished by having a spot price for electricity, and then people buying thermostats that query the spot price and turn HVAC, hot water heater, car battery chargers, etc., on and off.&lt;p&gt;This can be extended EVEN FURTHER by heating&amp;#x2F;cooling a pile of rocks to later use to heat&amp;#x2F;cool the house.&lt;p&gt;A battery consisting of a pile of rocks can&amp;#x27;t be expensive.&lt;p&gt;The idea is to not only adjust supply to the demand, but to shape the demand to the supply.&lt;p&gt;I am utterly astonished that this is never, ever discussed when talking about solutions to fluctuating supply. Having fixed electricity rates 24&amp;#x2F;7 is simply madness in today&amp;#x27;s electricity generation situation.</text></comment>
<story><title>Macron says France will build new nuclear energy reactors</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/macron-says-france-will-build-more-nuclear-energy-reactors-2021-11-09/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Manuel_D</author><text>Comparing the cost of a non-intermittent energy source with an intermittent energy source excluding the cost of storage is comparing apples to oranges. Solar and wind are cheap, until you saturate the energy market during peak production hours. Then it gets exorbitantly expensive. The only viable storage solution at the moment is hydroelectric, which is geographically limited. Global lithium ion battery output for a whole year doesn&amp;#x27;t even add up to 1 hour&amp;#x27;s worth of the USA&amp;#x27;s electricity consumption.&lt;p&gt;When probed on how to address intermittency, many wind and solar advocates propose things like hydrogen storage, giant flywheels, compressed air, or other solutions that are currently in the prototyping stage and have yet to actually be deployed to a grid and demonstrate viability.&lt;p&gt;This is the chief advantage of nuclear power: it works and we have over half a century of production experience with it. Betting on one of those storage solutions panning out is betting on a big unknown.</text></item><item><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not a comeback until you push the first kwh to the grid for the price you said you&amp;#x27;d build the new generator for. Japan turning back on mothballed reactors is a Big Deal (and a quick win for avoiding CO2 emissions), but getting new reactors built in less than a decade or for less than billons of dollars is where the proof lies. Talk and promises are cheap, action has a cost and can&amp;#x27;t be faked.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lazard.com&amp;#x2F;perspective&amp;#x2F;levelized-cost-of-energy-levelized-cost-of-storage-and-levelized-cost-of-hydrogen&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lazard.com&amp;#x2F;perspective&amp;#x2F;levelized-cost-of-energy-...&lt;/a&gt; (Lazard’s latest annual Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (LCOE 15.0) shows the continued cost-competitiveness of certain renewable energy technologies on a subsidized basis and the marginal cost of coal, nuclear and combined cycle gas generation.)</text></item><item><author>1cvmask</author><text>The Chinese have committed to building over 150 new nuclear reactors. The British government will subsidize Rolls Royce. Japan will reactivate over 30 nuclear reactors.&lt;p&gt;It seems this is the biggest energy story of the year. The comeback of nuclear energy.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;smallcaps.com.au&amp;#x2F;china-supercharge-uranium-race-150-new-nuclear-reactors&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;smallcaps.com.au&amp;#x2F;china-supercharge-uranium-race-150-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The HN discussion on the China story:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29151741&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29151741&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Japan reactivating nuclear reactors:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mainichi.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;20210501&amp;#x2F;p2a&amp;#x2F;00m&amp;#x2F;0op&amp;#x2F;007000c&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mainichi.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;20210501&amp;#x2F;p2a&amp;#x2F;00m&amp;#x2F;0op&amp;#x2F;00...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;UK. Rolls-Royce gets funding to develop mini nuclear reactors:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;business-59212983&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;business-59212983&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>twelvechairs</author><text>A mix of sources (e.g. a few solar and wind plants in different locations) overcomes much of the intermittency and storage issues. It usually requires upgrades to the grid and beyond that just some careful management of the (less regular) intermittency issues (whether storage or alternative sources on demand).&lt;p&gt;One plant should not be judged on its intermittency alone. Its just not how the system works at a connected-grid scale.</text></comment>