Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱1d ago

Since releasing my oil video I've had so many people claiming that renewables will never work and we need nuclear power instead.

What's odd is that almost all of the messages mention that nuclear power is the only solution for the "base load".

I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and I took several nuclear science electives. I like nuclear energy. But I received so much "base load" gaslighting that I started to doubt my own understanding of the situation.

Show threadSoso1d ago
@notjustbikes I used to be very pro-nuclear. While.I still think removing power plants today for ecological reasons is highly counter productive, I have significantly changed my position overall. So many countries don't have the ability to deploy nuclear. They don't have any already, building the expertise takes decades, and can be the cause of geopolitical tensions (see Iran...).
Show threadkravietz 🦇1d ago
@sgued

Have you considered geopolitical tensions in an industry where 85% of the whole supply chain (!) is controlled by a single authoritarian country?

That’s the PV market today and includes not only the panels but also backdoored inverters…
Show threadFuture Sprog1d ago

Plenty of other countries and companies can produce panels. LG, who are Korean, make a lot of PV.

Also, once purchased, they keep running without requiring approval and new shipments from an authoritarian country, so your fears are somewhat overblown.

@kravietz @sgued

Show threadkravietz 🦇1d ago
@futuresprog

1) “Can produce” != “do produce”
2) 85% supply chain control means even if you intend start your own production, you still depend on China for resources… which they can cut at any time, as they occasionally do with rare earth metals etc
3) moving production back to EU means cost increase because you no longer leverage Chinese forced labour, poor environmental standards, subsidies and low CO2 tax

Which are the reasons why China built that supply chain dependency in the first place 🤷
Show threadÓscar Morales Vivó
@kravietz @futuresprog If you think the supply chain of renewables is problematic, you should check the supply chain for nuclear energy.
Apr 14 at 3:53pmWeb
Show threadkravietz 🦇23h ago

@MyLittleMetroid @futuresprog

Well, I did! And it looks much better.

One reason is that typical volume of nuclear fuel is counted in tens of tons, while typical volume of resources for PV industry is counted in millions of tons due to its significantly lower energy density. It’s therefore easy to secure fuel for a nuclear power plan - you just send one cargo aircraft or ship. For the other you need to secure the whole logistics for continuous delivery of millions of tons of the resource.