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Comment by vonadz | Hacker News Reader

One of the big issues with nuclear plants is that they aren't very flexible in terms of their energy production. Their production is super steady, so what happens when there's a huge peak in electricity demand at 6 pm when everyone gets home? Fossil fuels are great for their relatively short start up time. Maybe renewables + batteries could somehow fill this niche?

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So what you’re saying is it would be best for base load and only good for about 75% of our electricity?

Imagine if we had said that 40 years ago. We’d be talking about getting to net zero by 2075 instead of 2050.

Now we’re still waiting for renewables

Power plants have giant flywheels and batteries (vanadium redox) that can help peak demand. Hydroelectric can also be managed for this.

IIUC modern reactors load-follow just fine, like in France.

For really fast fluctuations gas fired turbines and pumped storage are preferred.

"...when there's a huge peak in electricity demand at 6 pm when everyone gets home?"

The entire electrical generation industry knows all this. They know when clouds are coming and when wind will stop and model it all. Pricing information is sent ahead of time and plants know if they will be required to spin up or spin down well in advance. Especially something as simple as "everyone gets home at 6pm at a regular time every weekday". It is easy for plants with slow ramp times, such as nuclear and coal, to plan for that.

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