(08-09-2022, 01:53 AM)captivating Wrote:

(08-08-2022, 06:44 PM)NewJagsCity Wrote: At some point, our power grid must go nuclear.  Otherwise, until technology catches up and produces an air conditioner that can run on solar powered batteries, charging stations in every household that can do the same, we are going to have to do some serious rationing of energy.  Maybe 3rd world country versions of rationing, like only having power for 12 - 14 hours a day.

And even if we achieve all this here in the USA, it's not going to make a rat's rear end worth of difference if China and India are not doing the same.

Why?  Given that most energy is used during daylight hours, why wouldn't you use large scale solar to support the country's energy needs during the day.

Solar as it stands now can handle lighting, and other low amperage demands. Not large motors. Batteries as they exist today would have to have huge capacity to run your heat pump/strip heating 24/7. At the moment, they don't. Technology would need to advance for this to be viable. Same with solar field power plants. Great for base load lighting and other low amp devices, but at this moment in our energy technology history, system peak loads, which are mostly driven by HVAC, are supplied by turbines which cannot be run off of batteries or solar fields. They require a generating source that can supply the amps to run them. And, of course, HVAC runs mostly in the daytime. The cleanest energy that we currently have the technology to produce that will handle the demands of our electric grids is nuclear. France, Spain, England, Japan, China and others know this. We do too, but we're self hamstrung by the distant memory of a hack movie in the late 70's starring Jane Fonda, and a botched accident by the Russians. And even though we still haven't had a nuclear accident yet, public opinion is still negative. What about all the nuclear missiles that we have just sitting around in silos since the 60's thru today? And nuclear subs? Not one accident with those either, and yet we cant get out of our own way when a clean energy solution is right in front of us.

Btw, I'm not trying to be a know it all here, but I did load demand studies and power generation analysis for 8 years with the Jacksonville electric utility in the Generation planning and load forecasting departments. I did cost/safety analysis on all types of source fuel including oil, coal, petroleum coke, natural gas, biomass, solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear. So I do have some hands on experience with these issues.

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