I think this is, again, too simplistic a model for understanding the costs of different power systems. Industrial use cases (think data centers, factories, etc) likely reduce usage during night time hours but they surely don't drop by 50% usage.
> The bottom half of the demand is the easy half, why would you use your most expensive power for the easy stuff?
Factoring in carbon footprints nuclear would likely beat our battery based storage options if carbon output was taxed. Nickel–metal hydride battery and LiPo are not carbon neutral and are consumable components.
> In other words, you're running your nuclear at a 50% duty cycle, doubling it's price. I don't think there is much appetite for power that costs over $200 per MWh.
50% duty cycle means 50% fuel usage (not really but not not) meaning you're not really "wasting" energy here.
Another question to ask ourselves: we make the Total Cost of Ownership of a plant far better than it even currently is? We can do this by extending the lifespan of a plant to amortize construction. If you could design a power plant to last 100 to 200 years, that could be amortized further factoring into lower costs. We can also do this by reducing construction costs or improving efficiency.
I think those are accomplish-able goals (at least judging by China's adoption of Nuclear). Current plants in the USA operate for ~40 years. That means current plants were built with ~$today-50 (or more) years of physics and material science knowledge.
For context, that's the 70s. In the 70s:
- C was invented
- TTL logic was just starting to be used
- Stainless steel did not exist <- this statement was wrong
Edit: philipkglass pointed out that stainless steel is quite a bit older. Disregard that last item.
Nuclear requires huge amounts of cement and steel to build. Both of these resources are enormous sources of CO2. Cement clinker manufacturing, in particular, is a horrible emitter, responsible for 8% of global CO2 emissions all by itself.
That’s one type of building material among many that are needed in huge quantities.
That's a pretty weak argument. Those are once-off building requirements, not something that is repeated. If you compare the cement used by the one nuclear powerplant to the closest city it would be like a drop in the ocean.
There's been large improvement in cements specifically in the past few years. It can be recycled, enforced, and supplanted by other materials.
Concrete sold today can be bought with an advertised lifespan of 100 years. If you replace a coal plant with a nuclear plant how many years would it need to be net carbon negative? What is the grams of CO2 / kWh of nuclear vs coal vs solar?
Concrete resorbs CO2 from the air after you pour it. This carbonation of concrete can cause corrosion to rebar or other re-inforcments. A large portion of that CO2 is eventually reabsorbed back by the concrete. Depending on the mix this process can adsorb 1/3 to 2/3rds of the CO2 produced during production. However, this is a slow process and we keep making new concrete.
> The bottom half of the demand is the easy half, why would you use your most expensive power for the easy stuff?
Factoring in carbon footprints nuclear would likely beat our battery based storage options if carbon output was taxed. Nickel–metal hydride battery and LiPo are not carbon neutral and are consumable components.
> In other words, you're running your nuclear at a 50% duty cycle, doubling it's price. I don't think there is much appetite for power that costs over $200 per MWh.
50% duty cycle means 50% fuel usage (not really but not not) meaning you're not really "wasting" energy here.
Another question to ask ourselves: we make the Total Cost of Ownership of a plant far better than it even currently is? We can do this by extending the lifespan of a plant to amortize construction. If you could design a power plant to last 100 to 200 years, that could be amortized further factoring into lower costs. We can also do this by reducing construction costs or improving efficiency.
I think those are accomplish-able goals (at least judging by China's adoption of Nuclear). Current plants in the USA operate for ~40 years. That means current plants were built with ~$today-50 (or more) years of physics and material science knowledge.
For context, that's the 70s. In the 70s:
- C was invented
- TTL logic was just starting to be used
- Stainless steel did not exist <- this statement was wrong
Edit: philipkglass pointed out that stainless steel is quite a bit older. Disregard that last item.