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France’s nuclear fleet gives it one of the world’s lowest-carbon electricity grids (ourworldindata.org)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50718425

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[–] 2 points 1 month ago* (1 child)

All renewables are subject to some kind of weather impacts. A challenge with the grid is adapting to spikes in demand like if it's really cold or hot one day in particular. You cant turn up the sun or wind on demand.

We've been having brown outs in Canada for the first time ever in the last few years. Its crazy to imagine since our electricity is so abundant. Same with France struggling with this heat wave.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago*

    Modern Nuclear can load follow, its not as precise as peaker plants but its not too far off. Another cool thing with modern nuclear is you don't have to directly spin the turbines some modern plants are designed to shunt thermal production to thermal batteries (large pile of salt in a tube) which can be more finely throttled allowing the exact amount of power the grid needs at any given moment to be met. They just have to throttle the reactor to keep the Salt boiling. https://www.energy.gov/ne/advanced-reactor-demonstration-projects

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