On: Cuba’s Unfinished Nuclear Power Station

[pjc50]

This whole article illustrates a huge benefit of solar over nuclear: if you deploy 90% of the required solar panels, you get 90% of the energy, while if you build 90% of a nuclear plant, you get nothing. The power of incremental deployment.

[illiarian → pjc50]

> you deploy 90% of the required solar panels, you get 90% of the energy

No. You get 0% to 90% of energy.

E.g., right now in Germany solar is at 22% of its capacity. Wind is at 11%

[pydry → illiarian]

On average you get 30% of capacity.

But, a solar plant with a nameplate capacity of 1GW is roughly 15-17x cheaper than a 1GW nuclear plant and starts chipping away at gas and coal usage almost straight away, not in 15-20 years.

[illiarian → pydry]

> On average you get 30% of capacity.

Average means nothing when the output is zero (at night).

> a solar plant with a nameplate capacity of 1GW is roughly 15-17x cheaper than a 1GW nuclear plant

And produces zero electricity at night.