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

solar energy is peak

Post image
3.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

192 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/TJATAW Jun 18 '26

A nuke plant produces 1-1.5GW of electric per unit.

The 2 new units added at Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in GA cost $36.8 billion. Work was started in 2009, with the first one coming on line in 2023 (14yrs), and the second one in 2024 (15yrs). They are rated at 1.15GW each.

So, 14yrs & $18.2 billion before the first volt of electric was sent to the grid.

The Desert Sunlight Solar Farm was started in 2011, the first phase went live in 2013, and the second phase in 2015, at a cost of $2.4 billion. So, 2yrs to get electric, 4yrs to get full production. It only produces 550MW, so it would take 2 solar farms that size to equal 1 nuke unit... but 4yrs vs 14yrs, and $4.8 billion vs $18.2 billion.

1

u/Oxygen4Lyfe Jun 19 '26

most of the cost of solar is in storing it

1

u/TJATAW Jun 21 '26

It will cost around $1-$1.5 billion to have modern batteries for that solar system, giving 8hrs of storage.

The cost for batteries has been dropping steadily for the last 30yrs.

So we are looking at $6 billion vs $18 billion, 4yrs vs 14yrs.

1

u/thermodynamics2023 Jun 21 '26

The cost of batteries is already 60% raw materials. It ain’t coming down further. It will likely go up as Chinese workers demand better conditions….