I’m assuming you’re from the USA.
You already mentioned an electric grid for an entire country and that’s a solution right in front of you. It is very very very unlikely that no sun will shine and no wind will blow in your entire country at the same time.
You don’t really need base load power as much as nuclear proponents think you would. If you have a large enough, functioning grid, with well distributed renewable energy generation, these fluctuations can be compensated for.
Of course, batteries can help and make things easier. But you don’t even need to mine lithium for these anymore. Sodium batteries are already being used and that is an abundant resource. They have lower energy denity than lithium-batteries, which makes them less suitable for electric cars, but that’s not really a big issue for grid storage batteries.
Also you don’t need centralized massive battery plants, a decentralized system with smaller battery stations can work just as well, if not better.
So, backup batteries for an entire counry aren’t even as inconceivable as you may think.
And that’s all technology that’s already being used and doesn’t need a decade of planning to get a single powerplant up and running.
First of all, you assumed wrong. But that doesn’t really matter. Sticking with your USA example, it’s actually very likely that there will be moments throughout the year when there is not enough sun and wind to power the entire country. What about quiet winter days or even nights?
And maybe there is some wind in California. Is your plan to place enough wind turbines there to power the rest of the country?
The problem is with reliability. You need power at all times, and not 95% of the time.
As for sodium batteries: yes they may be feasible, but will it also be for an entire planet? Do you honestly think that it won’t also take decades to get the resources, build new factories and produce millions of batteries?
The point is, why wouldn’t you also use nuclear power? What makes it so bad that you want to ditch it? Even if it takes a decade or more to build. It’s a proven technology and extremely stable, much more so than solar or wind, which are not as reliable as you would make it seem.
I’m assuming you’re from the USA.
You already mentioned an electric grid for an entire country and that’s a solution right in front of you. It is very very very unlikely that no sun will shine and no wind will blow in your entire country at the same time.
You don’t really need base load power as much as nuclear proponents think you would. If you have a large enough, functioning grid, with well distributed renewable energy generation, these fluctuations can be compensated for.
Of course, batteries can help and make things easier. But you don’t even need to mine lithium for these anymore. Sodium batteries are already being used and that is an abundant resource. They have lower energy denity than lithium-batteries, which makes them less suitable for electric cars, but that’s not really a big issue for grid storage batteries. Also you don’t need centralized massive battery plants, a decentralized system with smaller battery stations can work just as well, if not better. So, backup batteries for an entire counry aren’t even as inconceivable as you may think.
And that’s all technology that’s already being used and doesn’t need a decade of planning to get a single powerplant up and running.
First of all, you assumed wrong. But that doesn’t really matter. Sticking with your USA example, it’s actually very likely that there will be moments throughout the year when there is not enough sun and wind to power the entire country. What about quiet winter days or even nights? And maybe there is some wind in California. Is your plan to place enough wind turbines there to power the rest of the country?
The problem is with reliability. You need power at all times, and not 95% of the time.
As for sodium batteries: yes they may be feasible, but will it also be for an entire planet? Do you honestly think that it won’t also take decades to get the resources, build new factories and produce millions of batteries?
The point is, why wouldn’t you also use nuclear power? What makes it so bad that you want to ditch it? Even if it takes a decade or more to build. It’s a proven technology and extremely stable, much more so than solar or wind, which are not as reliable as you would make it seem.