Nuclear Overtakes Coal Fired Power Generation in Historic Move(oilprice.com)
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Nuclear Overtakes Coal Fired Power Generation in Historic Move
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1 comments
But it is not nuclear that is rising. It is coal that is falling.
I'll also note that natural gas use is rising compared to that of coal because of one of the biggest faults of renewables.
Renewables cannot just be turned on and off, and will often show little or no power output during some period of time, at night, when its cloudy, and when its not windy. During this time, a natural gas plant can be quickly turned on, and run at the power necessary to make up for any lack in the renewable's output.
Coal cannot do this; coal plants are harder to power up and down, and they need to be run at a single output for optimum efficiency.
Coal itself is a very energy-dense fuel, and for this reason, as well as its ubiquity, is a very good fuel choice, and remains to be so for countries such as china, which also lack oil. The other big fault of coal is toxic emissions such as sulfur. Nuclear is of course the best of these, as its source is incredibly energy dense. Unfortunately, nuclear plants are being shut down, not opened, because of utilities or governments not wanting to maintain them, because of price or pressure not to. I do wish that nuclear would be adopted and become the main fuel used worldwide, but I just do not see that happening.