Reply To: would nuclear energy really be accessible to all?

[Breakable]

vansig wrote: trading power across long distances could work if transmission losses are minimized.

I learned today that, because Ontario’s nuclear generators need to run continuously, Quebec buys off-peak power from Ontario at a substantial discount, stores the energy by pumping water, and then sells power back to Ontario at 4x the rate to cover peak usage.

Interesting fact.

There are some ways to minimize the losses for now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hvdc
Later maybe superconductivity will get affordable.
And even for ac grid they don’t seem very high:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Losses
Transmission and distribution losses in the USA were estimated at 7.2% in 1995 and 6.5% in 2007

Some discussion of Nuclear vs Renewable’s
http://www.ted.com/talks/debate_does_the_world_need_nuclear_energy.html

Still if FF gets done ~5 years probably most solar will be irrelevant, except for some people who wont be able to afford a fusion generator (Africa?).