Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?
The article doesn’t include the word “baseload”, which is an important consideration. Utilities pay more for peaker capacity. For the same reason, market pricing regulations need to encouraging sources that provide a base amount of power despite weather conditions: network reliability and security of supply are valuable. (Let’s ignore Texas though).<p>In New Zealand, we are dependent on seasonal rain for our hydro-power, and in some years we run dry and the whole economy is affected. In NZ the 1992 power crisis due to a 1:100 year drought required 10%-15% reduction in power usage nationwide, which caused a 0.6% reduction in the NZ GDP: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nzherald.co.nz&#x2F;nz&#x2F;how-we-learned-the-lessons-from-1992&#x2F;NLFVIOGURGV7GAL3XCHNWBX4ZM&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nzherald.co.nz&#x2F;nz&#x2F;how-we-learned-the-lessons-fro...</a><p>Even a predicted security of supply risk of 1% has consequences (even thinking we could run dry causes costs). Fantastic article: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newsroom.co.nz&#x2F;will-nz-run-out-of-electricity-this-winter" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newsroom.co.nz&#x2F;will-nz-run-out-of-electricity-th...</a><p>NZ is lucky that if we install solar electricity, we can effectively store it in our existing lakes, no batteries needed. We are unlucky that politically our government wastes money[1] on subsidising electric cars, when they could subsidise solar instead (in fact it just needs political will, private investors have $X*100 million plans already designed for solar, but surprisingly held up by lack of interest by government).<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.1news.co.nz&#x2F;2022&#x2F;05&#x2F;16&#x2F;29b-climate-change-boost-for-evs-waste-emissions-reduction&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.1news.co.nz&#x2F;2022&#x2F;05&#x2F;16&#x2F;29b-climate-change-boost-...</a> “A new scrap-and-replace scheme to help low-and-middle income New Zealanders buy EVs and a nationalised curbside waste collection service is part of a significant $2.9 billion investment into tackling climate change and reducing New Zealand&#x27;s emissions.”