Bill Gates-backed nuclear contender Terra Power aims to build dozens of UK reactors::A Bill Gates-backed clean energy player is hoping to build dozens of nuclear reactors in the UK and will compete with global rivals.
All forms of energy have issues. For hydropower, you have a limited number of rivers you can dam up, and a limited amount of rainfall in a year (I live in Norway, we talk about water levels in the reservoirs every winter). For wind, it’s about the fluctuations and the available area to build in (most of Europe is either city or farmland, can’t build windmills everywhere). For solar, fluctuations are the biggest issue. For offshore wind, we’re just now starting to see that wind farms of a significant size can substantially impact the weather on nearby coastlines.
The point is: We need to diversify our energy mix in such a way that we mitigate as many of these issues as possible. Nuclear takes a long time to build, but we’re going to need even more energy in 20-50 years than we do now. Just imagine how much more electricity we need to produce to replace fossil fuels in the transportation sector alone.
Building nuclear does not mean we stop building renewables, or that we build less of them. It means that we build nuclear in addition to renewables. In the short run (20-30 years) we are going to need a whole lot of renewables very fast. If we start building nuclear now, those reactors can come online and start taking some of the load in 20-30 years. We have to plan for both the long and short term at the same time.
Building nuclear does not mean we stop building renewables, or that we build less of them.
Money as a finite resource as of now, so money spent on nuclear is not spent on renewables and storage. And that is the number 1 priority if we want to be carbon neutral as fast as possible. And if we manage to transition to an all renewable energy system and continue to need even more energy we can hopefully start with fusion in 20 years. But in the short term i would only invest in renewables.
Money is a finite resource as of now
Most renewable energy projects are not larger than that private entities can invest and build them, as they are assumed to be profitable. Nuclear requires large, governmental investments. Both can be funded if we push the private sector by squeezing out fossil fuels with regulation and forcing them to invest in renewables.
If (…) we continue to need even more energy we can hopefully start with fusion in 20 years.
The problem with starting with fusion in 20 years is twofold:
1: It assumes we will have viable, large scale fusion reactors developed within 20 years. Thats a big if.
2: If we start in 20 years, we won’t have them until 30-40 years from now.
Thats why we have to start planning now for exactly the case you are talking about: A situation 20 years from now when we have transitioned mostly to renewables, but still need more energy. That is a very likely future, which is why we need to build nuclear now, so that we have it in 20 years, when we will need it.
If the large governmental investments go into renewables and storage we have more energy faster.
Also nuclear doesn’t play nice with a energy network with a large fluctuating renewable part. As the running cost of a nuclear plant is minimal compared to the investment there is a huge incentive to let a nuclear plant run at max output all the time, thereby blocking the grid for renewables.
