As mentioned in my first posting on this board, energy policy is at the top of my issues list, and nuclear power acceptance at the top of that. Hopefully, I can add a bit to everyone's understanding of the technology through future dialogue of "pros & cons". As 'Knute' brought out though, not everyone has yet "warmed up" to the expanded, or even continued use of NP and if there needs to be a change in our current energy policy, it should only focus on Renewables, such as wind and solar.
Without intending to 'throw shade' on Renewables, I want to share a recent real world incident that needs to be reflected on and factored in when making vital choices - preferably in the near future.
The example that follows is an actual event that occurred in the U.K. and was reported on by Reuters and Bloomberg (can be verified through Google search). For brevity's sake, I'll "bulletize" the key points...and also apologize for the reliance on numbers...
>Starting in late May, 2018 the U.K. experienced a 13 day period of either very light, or no, wind at all. This becalmed state effectively shut down that nation's many wind power (WP) farms.
>The U.K.'s installed WP capacity was at that time, 19,261 Megawatts (MW)
- the "Load Factor" for all wind is 30.1%...at 30.1% LF, the average WP capacity is 5,797 MW...therefore, during the 13 day x 24 hour period (312 hrs) WP only generated 963.4 MW, or
4,834.2 MW lower than average.
>For battery storage (e.g. Li-Ion) to make up for this shortfall, it would have to deliver 4,834.2 MW x 312 hrs = 1,508,270 MWhrs
- A Tesla "PowerPack 2" commercial battery unit has a capacity of 0.2 MWhrs...therefore, at least 7,541,350 PowerPack 2 units would be required.
>A Google search for Tesla PowerPack 2 pricing shows a current cost (with inverter, but w/o installation, maintenance or grid connection) of $162,000 each...as well as a "footprint" of 1 sq.mtr.
>The consequent total cost would exceed $1.22 Trillion and require of 8 square kilometers.
But, we're not done yet...
>Nuclear plants today are licensed for 60 years of operation
>Wind turbines are judged to have lifetimes on the order of 25 years, meaning that the WP capital cost would need to be repeated 2.4 times...all things being equal...plus...
>Li-Ion batteries have lifetimes on the order of 10-15 years, so that $1.22T "backup" would need to be repeated at least four more times...and...
>As mentioned in David MacKay's free, on-line book "Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air", which I've linked previously...WP provides only 3 Watts per square meter, no matter the size of the turbine/blade installation, so I'll let you do the math on the area required for U.S. electrical energy supply.
Let's talk more about "All This"...because we have to.
BTW, I've attached a link to a forward thinking report on Energy Policy from a major economic modeling firm and authored by one of Obama's Energy Secretaries (Ernest Moniz), as well as an Oil & Gas expert (Daniel Yergin)...hope you find it helpful.
Link: https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/files/publication/Full%20Report%20-%20Advancing%20the%20Landscape%20of%20Clean%20Energy%20Innovation.pdf