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Nuclear too slow to replace coal, and baseload “simply can’t compete” with wind and solar, AEMO boss says (reneweconomy.com.au)

submitted 5 months ago by phneutral@feddit.org to c/energy@slrpnk.net

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The head of the Australian energy market operator AEMO, Daniel Westerman, has rejected nuclear power as a way to replace Australia's ageing coal-fired power stations, arguing that it is too slow and too expensive. In addition, baseload power sources are not competitive in a grid dominated by wind and solar energy anyway.

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[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 75 points 5 months ago (38 children)

Even if we started to build nuclear plants like crazy right now, it would be decades for them to make a real impact. Building a single nuclear plant is very expensive and time consuming. Building up the necessary supply chain to build a lot of them would take much longer. In the meantime, you can build huge amounts of renewables in just a few years for a fraction of the cost, even if you factor in storage.

[–] UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Exactly. Sure, shutting down existing plants is dumb af (looking at you, Germany). But building new plants now with the aim of having an impact on climate change just isn't the most effective decision.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

Most of those were very old. I'm glad we're not the ones who will find out how long you can really run one if those things before it fails.

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