Difference between revisions of "Can nuclear co-exist with wind and solar?"

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(Created page with "Category: 3 Category: Energy futures Category: 100% renewable Category: Anti-nuclear Category: Baseload '''Can reactors react''' is the title of a discussi...")
 
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'''Can reactors react''' is the title of a discussion paper by Craig Morris published by the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in January 2018.
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"'''Can reactors react'''" is the title of a discussion paper by Craig Morris published by the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in January 2018.
  
The paper's subtitle is '''Is a decarbonized electricity system with a mix of fluctuating renewables and nuclear reasonable?'''
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The paper's subtitle is "'''Is a decarbonized electricity system with a mix of fluctuating renewables and nuclear reasonable?'''"
  
 
The paper discusses issues of whether, or how flexibly, nuclear power plants can ramp their outputs down (and back up again) and whether baseload energy generation conflicts with intermittent wind and solar. It concludes
 
The paper discusses issues of whether, or how flexibly, nuclear power plants can ramp their outputs down (and back up again) and whether baseload energy generation conflicts with intermittent wind and solar. It concludes

Revision as of 17:55, 30 September 2020

"Can reactors react" is the title of a discussion paper by Craig Morris published by the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in January 2018.

The paper's subtitle is "Is a decarbonized electricity system with a mix of fluctuating renewables and nuclear reasonable?"

The paper discusses issues of whether, or how flexibly, nuclear power plants can ramp their outputs down (and back up again) and whether baseload energy generation conflicts with intermittent wind and solar. It concludes

Three options are commonly proposed for deep decarbonization:

  1. a reliance on nuclear;
  2. a reliance on wind and solar; and
  3. a mix of nuclear with wind and solar.

As France shows, we can have deep decarbonization based largely on nuclear. No country yet proves that the second combination – wind and solar – will work, but all signs indicate that such scenarios are becoming more feasible by the year – while nuclear becomes increasingly irrelevant, even in France.

The third option – the much touted “balanced” mix of nuclear with wind and solar – is a chimera. No country will ever demonstrate that nuclear is a good complement for wind and solar unless some future reactor design ramps like current gas turbines at a competitive price. Germany is widely criticized for abandoning its experiment to mix wind, solar and nuclear in 2011.

But such critics incorrectly assume that this mix will work. France is now poised to conduct its own experiment, and it is unlikely to go well. The real threat to the dream of a balanced mix of nuclear, wind and solar is thus not Germany’s Energiewende, but the French transition énergétique.

Can reactors react? This paper finds that nuclear reactors cannot to the extent needed for a significant share of wind and solar. Nuclear, or wind and solar? We have to choose.