Hacker News Reader

Finland's new 1.6GW nuclear reactor, the largest in Europe, uses sea water for cooling.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olkiluoto_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Just 1.6 GW for 11 billion euros and a 14 years delay...

Meanwhile Germany has added 2.65 GW of solar power in Q1/2023 alone: https://www.pv-magazine.de/2023/04/20/photovoltaik-zubau-im-...

2.65GWpeak... all of which runs at a capacity factor of about 11% on average, and delivers energy at inconsistent inconvenient times. Won't run your heat pump in a December night for sure.

So the solar energy gets supplemented with bulldozing villages every year to mine lignite in Garzweiler instead. Yay?

Bullshit. Germany is still a decade or two away from needing energy storage to even out renewable power peaks. Until then, all the capacity provided by renewable sources reduces the overall emissions, which is the reason we are doing this at all.

The purpose of building up renewable energy sources right now is NOT to sustain peak loads entirely from renewables. But such simplifications are convenient, right?

That's great that Germany has that option. Finland is quite a bit further north, and doesn't get much solar during the winter months when it needs it the most. There's a lack of mountains an fjords as well, so hydro is also hard to come by.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com