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loeg

> Right now the choice is between a nuclear power plant during these moments, or a natural gas one.

Well, gas and coal. Germany is still ~26% coal in 2021[1].

Edit: Maybe 50% coal if you look at consumption, not just generation, per 'incrudible[2].

[1]: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/styles/g... (Lignite is a kind of coal)

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28857398

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Germany is closer to 50% coal if you look at actual demand being fulfilled instead of just production. In the linked image, the grey area is conventionals (mostly coal), the green area is exports of surplus.

https://oneinabillionblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/hourly...

I would expect that in most places this will shift to natural gas, given that natural gas is more economically viable than coal for new plants. But still, both are fossil fuels, so neither option is great.

It's all about the geographical decoupling with local storage and smart consumers to smooth the loads. For example tying the charging of your electric car while it's parked to the current price. Spatial and temporal arbitrage of energy, which nuclear is completely awful at.

Or using Swedish, Norwegian hydro and wind together with German, British and Danish wind. These links are on the same scale as nuclear reactors.

Germany <-> Norway (2021) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NordLink

UK <-> Norway (2021) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_Link

UK (Scotland) <-> Norway (On hold by Norway, cleared on Scottish side) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NorthConnect

Denmark <-> Norway (1977) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skagerrak_(power_transmission_...

No, gas is not more economical everywhere. It is in places which have gas, but most of Europe doesn’t have it — it has coal, though. For most of Europe, betting on gas means putting themselves under Kremlin control for its basic needs.

In this future use case, is coal plant really evil, or acceptable?

What future use case? We’re talking about right now.

Also, coal emissions kill 100,000 people yearly, 25,000 in Europe alone. Yes, it’s evil.

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