this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
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Nuclear capacity is expected to rise by 14% by 2030 and surge by 76% to 686 GWe by 2040, the report said

This is only good news if it displaces thermal coal and gas generating stations.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Absolutely! The way I see it, grid energy storage is something we really need to improve dramatically.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, but there really aren't that many good options for it. Pumped Hydro is by far the best but limited by geography.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That’s what I thought until I watched this video.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I assume you mean the "limited by geograpghy" bit? It's a pretty good video overall, but the US and Australia aren't the best examples here. You guys have tons of space and a rather low population density. But large parts of Northern Europe we have some insanley densly populated areas and no site for pumped storage nearby.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, that’s exactly it. Initially I thought it was pretty much impossible to find suitable locations any more, but apparently there are lots of sites left. Highly populated areas are obviously a lot more challenging. The point is that as opposed to having exactly zero locations, it seems that we do have some options here and there.

Update: here’s an interesting map for potential locations. If you’re in Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Stockholm or other flat regions, you’re not going to see any pumped hydro any time soon. However mountains of Norway, Spain, France, Italy and Germany look a lot better in that regard.

Actually, Poland, Hungary, and England are probably the worst locations, but fortunately there are still many opportunities elsewhere in Europe.