Solar started to beat out nuclear in terms of LCOE a few years ago. We should continue to operate all of our current nuclear reactors as long as it is safe to do so, but planning new builds today given how cheap solar is just doesnt make sense.
We don’t have the storage to use solar for base load energy yet.
Factories and mills and chip fabs and industrial refrigeration needs to run all the time, and needs reliable constant power.
Solar is -awesome- for distributed generation where loads peak based on insolation (classic example being a/c units). Residential power demand is also just generally higher during the day.
Nuclear for constant demand, solar for circadian and insolation-based needs is a pretty good mix to start, certainly a hell of a lot better than what we have now.
Solar started to beat out nuclear in terms of LCOE a few years ago. We should continue to operate all of our current nuclear reactors as long as it is safe to do so, but planning new builds today given how cheap solar is just doesnt make sense.
We don’t have the storage to use solar for base load energy yet.
Factories and mills and chip fabs and industrial refrigeration needs to run all the time, and needs reliable constant power.
Solar is -awesome- for distributed generation where loads peak based on insolation (classic example being a/c units). Residential power demand is also just generally higher during the day.
Nuclear for constant demand, solar for circadian and insolation-based needs is a pretty good mix to start, certainly a hell of a lot better than what we have now.