alt Hacker NewsIn modern times you combine solar energy with wind power and batteries and you already have 90% of the load covered. Then combine that with cheap, easily adjustable gas power plants to complete the picture for cloudy, windless winter days.
There's really no need for coal or nuclear power plants anymore.
Replies
noosphr • yesterday at 11:47 PM
If you run a washing machine sure.
If you need to run an industrial process, not so much.
Building gas power plants that run only a few weeks per year is very expensive. Just compare prices in Germany (gas) with China (coal) or Finland (nuclear).
A more economical way would be to build nuclear power plants that power electrolyzers most of the time and provide power to the grid when necessary.
In the US, gas power plants make more sense due to ridiculously cheap gas, but even then the capacity factor of those power plants is much higher than 10%.