this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2023
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Solar now being the cheapest energy source made its rounds on Lemmy some weeks ago, if I remember correctly. I just found this graphic and felt it was worth sharing independently.

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth

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[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 29 points 11 months ago (18 children)

Pretty clearly shows why there’s no future for nuclear power.

Even for filling gaps in renewables, peaker plants are getting cheaper and don’t take 15 years to build.

[–] usrtrv@lemmy.ml 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I think that's too simplistic of a view. Part of the high cost of nuclear is because of the somewhat niche use. As with everything, economies of scale makes things cheaper. Supporting one nuclear plant with specialized labor, parts, fuel, etc is much more expensive then supporting 100 plants, per Watt.

I can't say more plants would drastically reduce costs. But it would definitely help.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 3 points 11 months ago (4 children)

They’ve had 75 years to get the cost down. It’s still going up.

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago

because of oil funded fear pushing pseudoscience based restrictions

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[–] Knusper@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The source article actually talks about this and measured data suggests nuclear cost actually went up, despite more capacity being built.

This is the first time, I've read this anywhere. More sources/studies would be really important. And there is lots of interpretations to be had on the why, but assuming the article isn't completely off the mark, that's cold, hard data suggesting that your (perfectly reasonable) assumption is actually wrong, after all.

[–] usrtrv@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Interesting, I'll have to look at the source article.

But as far as I'm aware the total amount of nuclear power has been decreasing in recent years. This might change with China's future plants.

I've also read about small modular reactor designs gaining traction, which would help alleviate the heavy costs of one off plants we currently design and build.

Not saying the source is wrong, just saying that's what I used to form my opinion.

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

china's been building dozens of reactors, all of a common design which is the correct way https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hualong_One

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

bullshit regulatory costs can increase infinitely without nay change to the underlying engineering or economics. that's 100% the cause of the price increses

[–] Knusper@feddit.de 1 points 11 months ago

Possible. But well, whether these regulations actually are bullshit or not, kind of doesn't matter. A dumb solar panel won't ever need to be regulated as much. If that's what makes it cheaper, it still is cheaper.

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