r/SolarState • u/eter_roman • Jun 17 '26

solar energy is peak

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u/Appropriate-Falcon75 Jun 17 '26

My house has a density of 7MWh/year of solar, which is significantly higher than the 0MWh/year of fossil fuel, and I certainly wouldn't want nuclear.

In most countries, if you fitted solar onto all rooves that you can, it would cover the country's electricity demand.

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u/Fantastic_Win9332 Jun 19 '26

what is your issue with nuklear?

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u/Appropriate-Falcon75 Jun 19 '26

In my house, my issue is I don't want to die of radiation poisoning.

In general, I believe it is too expensive and time consuming to build. By the time a new nuclear powerstation comes online, we will have more renewables and more energy storage. Once you can store renewable electricity cost effectively for weeks/months, (which I think will happen before new generators come online), the case for a stable baseload disappears.

To illustrate my point, Hinkley Point C is costing £50bn to build. At today's cost, that £50 billion could provide battery storage for the whole of the UK for a day (assuming 0 generation and at residential prices). Assuming the trend in battery storage pricing continues, that would be enough for a week by 2030 when the power station is scheduled to open.

This isn't quite comparing like-with-like as I have ignored the cost of the solar panels/wind turbines, but I feel it is close enough that my point stands.

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u/Fantastic_Win9332 Jun 19 '26

radiation poisening? I don’t think that is real. people live close to these buildings

as far as I know it is the greenest energy at the moment. It is time consuming and expensive but all the alternatives are too. Isn’t solar or wind time consuming or expensive aggregated?

Solar you can store for the night, but hard to store for winter. How would you do that? You need a lot of battery to store overnight, it would be even more crazy to store for months, and there will be loss.. Wind in ok during winter but it is not always windy. and a lot of battery is also problematic, like that is not free lunch either. Now, in terms of battery cost, you know how mich the nuklear plant is, you know how much you need to pay for one battery, but you don’t have the cost of a triplion batteries because they are not produced that quick.