Solar now being the cheapest energy source made its rounds on Lemmy some weeks ago, if I remember correctly. I just found this graphic and felt it was worth sharing independently.

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth

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[–] 18 points 2 years ago (4 children)

No it doesn't. Cheap solar is great but even if it was $0, you'd still need some other tech to provide electricity when the sun is down. So it's either gas, batteries, nuclear, etc. but you can't just use solar alone.

And until batteries get good enough, nuclear is the cleanest option we have.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    How long will it take for us to get good enough batteries? If it's less than 10 years, then it's less than the time to build a nuclear power plant.

    Oh, and the answer may very well be that we already have batteries that are good enough.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    How long will it take for us to get good enough batteries?

    Including the time to manufacture and install them at utility scales (we are talking powering an entire nation out of batteries for hours), way more than a decade.

    Batteries are already being installed on grids but they can only help so much smooth out power delivery. They are very very far from having the ability to completely take over an entire grid.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They could. Someday.

    Nuclear can, now.

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