When do we get the next one?

  • Claidheamh
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    10 months ago

    So why is your country’s emissions per capita more than 50% higher than France’s (from here), despite a much higher renewables percentage in the power mix? Might it have something to do with how much more nuclear they have?

    Looking through your post history, we seem to be aligned in advocating for decarbonisation. If you really want to reach zero emissions as soon as possible, don’t you think we should be exploring every carbon free avenue, and shutting down every single fossil fuel power plant?

    Don’t fall for your government’s justifications, or fearmongering around nuclear. If we want to decarbonise the grid, we need it to complement renewables and fill the roles that renewables can’t by themselves. The longer we take to realise that, the longer we’ll keep burning greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

    • ebikefolder@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      I’m not paying €79/month to review the whole statistics, but you know perfectly well that France started from a much lower number. They already had nuclear when we started to roll out renewables on a large scale. Are you by any chance familiar with the term “head start”?

      But decisions from 40 years ago are irrelevant for decisions today. Spilled milk.

    • ebikefolder@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      don’t you think we should be exploring every carbon free avenue, and shutting down every single fossil fuel power plant?

      Sure. But nuclear is probably not the answer: we don’t have those decades left it takes to build hundreds of new plants. Not to mention the astronomical cost. The ship had sailed 30 years ago.

      Edit: the last 3 nuclear plants we shut down this year had a combined capacity of around 4 GW. In 2022 we installed over 7 GW of solar and about 2.5 GW of wind capacity (this year it will probably significantly more)

      • Claidheamh
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        10 months ago

        We don’t need hundreds of new plants. France only has around 50 and it’s more than enough. It’s also feasible to retrofit existing coal plants with nuclear reactors, for example.

        30 years ago it was the same argument. “It takes too long, we needed to have started earlier”. Well, here we are now. Let’s not have kids 30 years from now saying the same thing.

        • ebikefolder@feddit.de
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          10 months ago

          France regularly imports (renewable) electricity from Germany when they have to shut down some of their reactors due to cooling problems in summer. So 50 are not enough. For a smaller economy.

          • Claidheamh
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            10 months ago

            Every country imports electricity from their neighbours. Germany also imports from France. That’s how an interconnected power grid works.

              • Claidheamh
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                10 months ago

                Well, so has France. And at a larger percentage. While emitting disproportionately less carbon, which, again, is the whole point of this conversation. I’d rather not sacrifice climate for the sake of economy. Especially because the economy will suffer a lot more if we don’t get emissions under control.

                  • Claidheamh
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                    10 months ago

                    Because they fill different roles in the power grid? They don’t replace each other. Haven’t you been reading what I’ve been saying all this time or what? Nuclear works WITH renewables. It’s fossil fuels we need to phase out, and nuclear can fill their role when renewables can’t.