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Comment by TheOtherHobbes | Hacker News Reader

Even then, it's still far more expensive than renewables.

If you had to use renewables for base load power generation, they'd be a lot more expensive, as you'd need massive overcapacity (and probably batteries / pumped storage too) to compensate for periods of low generation.

So build the overcapacity. It will still be cheaper.

That may be true but they would still have the advantage that if the operator goes belly-up you close the doors and the costs stop.

You don't force hundreds of generations to pay for the decision, which is what we are actually doing with nuclear.

So, as someone who works in the energy industry, what is "base load generation" to you?

It is an "always on" source?

Why does a particular fuel type need to be always on?

Base load power is a concept that doesn’t make sense with renewables.

It’s a concept that was created for nuclear, because it has a very similar problem as renewables: the cost lies in building the generating capacity, not in using it. For nuclear to be cheap it needs to get used 100% also in the night and during the weekend. In a purely nuclear power net you also need overcapacity to be able to generate maximum load.

> they'd be a lot more expensive

Citation needed. Large energy grids have plenty of capacity to transfer electricity across countries if not whole continents and balance out production and usage. Industrial loads (and various consumer loads) have been adaptive for decades.

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