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China Cancels Over 100 Coal-Fired Power Plants (reuters.com)
In an effort to improve air quality, the Chinese government has canceled over 100 coal-fired power plants in 11 provinces -- totaling a combined installed capacity of more than 100 gigawatts. Reuters reports: In a document issued on Jan. 14, financial media group Caixin reported, the National Energy Administration (NEA) suspended the coal projects, some of which were already under construction. The projects worth some 430 billion yuan ($62 billion) were to have been spread across provinces and autonomous regions including Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi and other northwestern areas. Putting the power projects on hold is a major step towards the government's effort to produce power from renewable sources such as solar and wind, and wean the country off coal, which accounts for the majority of the nation's power supply. To put it in perspective, some 130 GW of additional solar and wind power will be installed by 2020, equal to France's total renewable power generation capacity, said Frank Yu, principal consultant at Wood Mackenzie. "This shows the government is keeping its promise in curbing supplies of coal power," Yu said. Some of the projects will still go ahead, but not until 2025 and will likely replace outdated technology, he said.
I never believed China would be up to this. Great!
Go talk to northern Canadians and Alaskans. The frozen sea. Ice which should show up in October didn't show up until December and January.
In the US our winter is currently 20 degrees above normal.
And always. https://xkcd.com/1732/
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
You really think it's unrealistic to replace 60 year old nuclear technology with something as simple an elegant as a windmill or a sheet of semiconductor with no moving parts?
Yes, I do believe it unrealistic to replace 60 year old nuclear technology with wind and solar power. There's two big reasons I believe this.
First, it's a matter of resources. Wind power takes ten times as much steel and concrete to produce the same power as coal or nuclear. I don't have the numbers for solar in front of me but I do recall it being similar. Those windmills sit atop large steel poles anchored to large concrete pads. We can choose to put those resources into wind power or we can use those same resources, put it into nuclear power, and get ten times more energy in return.
Second, it's a matter of reliability. Wind power only works when the wind blows. Solar power only works when the sun shines. Nuclear power doesn't care what the weather is or the time of day. Wind and solar have a capacity factor of about 30%, nuclear power has a capacity factor of about 90%. I don't know if that 10 times number from Morgan Stanley I gave above includes the capacity factor issue or not but this still makes nuclear look real good.
This is using numbers from "60 year old" nuclear technology. We got better stuff in development now. There's nothing inherently wrong with how we've been doing nuclear considering how safe it has been but we do know how to make it safer and therefore cheaper. By doing away with the large pools of water for moderator and cooling, and therefore the threat of a flash boil in a loss of cooling event, the large containment domes are unnecessary. By using liquid metal or liquid salt for cooling, and graphite moderator, the containment can be much smaller. That alone saves a lot on material costs.
What I foresee as replacing these 60 year old nuclear reactors are new nuclear reactors. With a four decade span where the USA has not built a new nuclear power plant we are going to see a lot of nuclear reactors being in operation for twice their intended lifespan. When those reactors were designed they were intended to run for 30 to 50 years before being replaced, many of them are now expected to run for 80 years. While this is impressive engineering it is also pushing the limits of safety. If you don't want to see another Fukushima style disaster then you are going to want to see many more new nuclear power plants built.
Without nuclear power we have the option of smog or the lights going out. Wind and solar are not a solution. "Smart grids" and utility scale batteries will not make wind and solar viable and they certainly will not make them affordable.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
How could anybody think there was a racial component to random mention of "refugees" who like warmer weather? Really these could be refugees from Norway or Finland! I was shocked!