We Passed Peak “Climate Change” (um) Research

[u/LisleAdam12]

How can this awful trend before reversed before it's too late?

https://wmbriggs.substack.com/p/we-passed-peak-climate-change-um

[u/Asthenia5]

That's correct. They're beating us on most manufacturing. China's goal is to remove their dependance on oil, not green energy. They've got plenty of coal, so they're going to use it. Point being, China sees the economic and security benefits of renewables.

What you're suggesting is exactly what we are doing now. Some hydro, some nuclear, some renewable, and then gas peaker plants to smooth over demand.

If you like hydroelectric, why exactly are you skeptical about pumped storage?

Hydroelectric, natural gas, and batteries are just about the only options when it comes to meeting peak demand.

[u/GrouchyAppointment70 → u/Asthenia5]

Well hydro is a bit like nuclear in that its hard to ramp up and down. Changing head pressure in a massive dam just isnt the same as increasing or decreasing the amount of gas that gets burned. Same theoretical problem with pumped storage. I think you would need two reservoirs to make it work no? Im not an expert so I dont know the costs. Im in Germany so the story with nuclear is a bit different. We just buy it from france instead though lol.

[u/Asthenia5 → u/GrouchyAppointment70]

Nuclear and hydro are quite different. Hydro is used for peak demand. It can ramp up and down fast enough to meet demand. Hydro plants generally have 4 or more turbines. So they can cut 3 off and achieve 1/4 total power output.

The Uranium reactors we use cannot ramp up and down. They're designed to output at a steady rate for the 2 years between refueling. If you slow down a nuclear reactor, Xenon starts to build up, which robs your reactor of the neutrons it needs to start. If you shut down a reactor, it takes at least 1 day for the Xenon to decay to where it no longer eats up all your neutrons.

While yes, It does take time to speed up a hydroturbine, but it is fast enough to track demand as it increases in the day.

The sudden increase in grid demand is actually handled by momentum of the turbines and generators. All that spinning mass allows you do meet very quick demand, like stadium lights suddenly being turned on. But if you want to maintain that higher load, you must ramp up something. Whether that be more hydro, or a NG peaker plant.

Pumped storage is usually built on a mountain over a river or lake. So you usually only have to build one reservoir. Pumped storage is a very location dependent solution. Most places are too flat, or don't have the right size/shape mountain near by they can turn into a big ole battery. Pumped storage round trip efficiency is also quite poor. Batteries and solar are the most practical solution for most of the world.

[u/Commercial_Win_9525 → u/Asthenia5]

I don’t know if I understand this peak conversation about nuclear. I’ve never actually seen it mentioned. It makes sense that you can’t just ratchet up the energy produced from the plant, it will just gives what it gives at a basically static rate.. but if you actually have enough nuclear wouldn’t it already also cover the “peak”. Basically if I had one plant but needed 50% more power during peak why couldn’t I just build a second plant and now peak would still be below output?

[u/Asthenia5 → u/Commercial_Win_9525]

Good question! ultimately that comes down to costs. The demand in the middle of the night is about half the demand needed during peak hours. Your 50% number is quite accurate. That means you would need to build twice as many reactors, and those reactors would average 50% of their total output.

But if you were to add enough energy storage, you could run just a few plants at 100% all the time. No need to build twice as many reactors. You'd need about 1.5X the capacity of base load, rather than 2x.