Why baseload power is doomed | By Chris Nelder - March 28, 2012 |

A persistent myth about the challenges of integrating renewable power into the grid is that because solar and wind are intermittent, grid operators need to maintain full generation capacity from "baseload" plants powered by coal and nuclear. Recent real-world data and research shows that not only is this not true, but that baseload capacity is fundamentally incompatible with renewables, and that as renewables provide a greater portion of the grid's power, baseload generation will need to be phased out.

'Sapere aude'

Just had to double-check what that means: a kWh, which used to cost around 30cent/kWh for retail customers now is trading at €1.20/kWh on the wholesale market.

— Christian Odendahl (@COdendahl) August 26, 2022

'Sapere aude'

As nuclear production increases, so does EU defined Green energy. False notions using percentages instead of absolute values.

BREAKING ⚡️ Power sector emissions may have peaked in 2022, as wind and solar reach a record 12% of global electricity.

Our fourth annual Global Electricity Review presents data from 78 countries, representing 93% of global electricity demand.#GER2023 [_link] pic.twitter.com/EghD5w1qZV

— Ember (@EmberClimate) April 11, 2023

So the US blew up Nord Stream pipelines and Western Europe suffers with strong savings Russian gas ... MAGA.

'Sapere aude'

Wondering why your energy bills keep going up?

It's simple. It's because Europe's energy market is a scam!

Here's @yanisvaroufakis on why it is so and what we can do about it.[_link]

— DiEM25 (@DiEM_25) September 14, 2022

'Sapere aude'

TenneT and National Grid collaborate on proposed first-of-a-kind Anglo-Dutch electricity link

TenneT and National Grid have today  announced plans for a first-of-its-kind electricity link that will connect offshore wind between the Netherlands and the UK.  
LionLink, which was included as a key project in today's North Sea Energy Declaration, could connect Dutch wind farms to the electricity grids of both countries via a subsea high voltage electricity cable, called a multi-purpose or hybrid interconnector. The development would be the first of its kind for the UK and the Netherlands, and the first step towards an integrated electricity grid in the North Sea.  

'Sapere aude'

Fourth reactor at Georgia nuclear plant completes test phase, 1 May

[...]
That means the unit of the Atlanta-based Southern Co. can start loading radioactive fuel into the reactor once it completes construction documentation and gets approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
[...]
Units 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle are the first new reactors built from scratch in decades in the United States. The first two reactors have been generating electricity at Vogtle for decades. A third and a fourth reactor were approved for construction at Vogtle by the Georgia Public Service Commission in 2009, and the third reactor was supposed to start generating power in 2016.
[...]
Georgia Power owns a minority of the two new reactors. The remaining shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, and the city of Dalton. Oglethorpe and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia would sell power to cooperatives and municipal utilities across Georgia, as well in Jacksonville, Florida, and parts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Georgia Power's 2.7 million customers are already paying part of the financing cost, and state regulators have approved a monthly rate increase of $3.78 a month as soon as the third unit begins generating power. The elected Georgia Public Service Commission will decide later who pays for the remainder of the costs, including the fourth reactor.

Zaporizhzhia is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, with six 950 MW reactors for 5700 MW nameplate capacity. It remains to be seen if it will ever reach that capacity again (and in which country).

Whereas

The Olkiluoto plant consists of two boiling water reactors (BWRs), each with a capacity of 890 MW, and one EPR type reactor (unit 3) with a capacity of 1,600 MW.[1] This makes unit 3 currently the most powerful nuclear power plant unit in Europe

... i.e. it's the headline that's wrong : the EPR is the most powerful nuclear reactor in Europe.
The plant, at 3290 MW for its 3 reactors, is far from being the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe. I have never seen a nuclear reactor called a "nuclear power plant unit" before. Where do they get these journalists.

In France, Gravelines (practically in Belgium), Paluel (in Normandy) and Cattenom (practically in Luxemburg) have a higher nameplate capacity, at 5200 MW, than the Finnish plant. I have worked at all three. Oh, and there a bunch of other French plants at about 3600 MW, most of which I have also been to. So Olkiluoto comes in 11th in Europe.

Given the current problems of corrosion under constraint which have contributed about as much as the Russian gas crisis to the explosion of electricity prices in Europe, one reactor at Cattenom and two at Gravelines are currently under maintenance. But in terms of current production, Cattenom is the top in Europe, at about 3600 MW.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}