Solar + batteries averaged over the 24 hour demand curve are cheaper than current generation nuclear power plant operating 24/7/365. The issue is turning off nuclear power plants don’t significantly reduce costs so their competing head to head vs x hours @ 2c/kWh + y hours @ ~20c/kWh.
At first glance it seems to slightly favor nuclear when it can operate 24/7, but nuclear power plants have a very long lifecycle 40+ years and projected battery costs for future replacements are lower than today’s values. Worse nuclear has a much longer lead time so you already need to compare battery prices ~5 years from now when you’re looking at building a new nuclear power plant.
PS: Note grid batteries are significantly cheaper when they can share inverters with solar generation and be directly charged via DC. Standalone prices are higher. Also, fast discharge peaking power reduces battery lifetimes over longer discharge nighttime useage.
Batteries inherently allow for peaking power, it’s nuclear that has issues with fluctuations in demand. So, by average I mean how much are you able to use directly vs how much do you need to store in batteries.
To be more clear only using solar with battery backup you can provide 24/7 power that covers demand but at lower costs per kWh than current nuclear numbers operating 24/7 and vastly lower than trying to reach 100% nuclear generation in almost every country.
Nope, ~60% of France’s power is provided by nuclear while 71.6% of it’s power production is nuclear. They export 86.3 TWh almost entirely nuclear power and import 26.1 TWh almost entirely non nuclear power (2016).
Even then their nuclear capacity factor is 77% where it’s generally 90+% in the US because frequently nobody want’s to import electricity from France. So, France’s high percentage of nuclear power results roughly 17% higher costs per kWh for nuclear power due to oversupply. Or more depending on what it exports at.
Further, the more you increase nuclear capacity globally, the less anyone is going to be importing it at night and weekends when everyone is over supplied.
I don't know about a lot. I live in Tromsø, Norway (69N). There aren't many populated areas this far north. And even here, solar is pretty decent for a lot of uses (Esp in combination with insulation to reduce the need for heating).
We also have quite a lot of precipitation - but again, solar isn't hopeless even here.
As for seasonal storage, I suspect some kind of kinetic/potential energy storage might be better than batteries? Like lifting a weight, or pumping a liquid up hill/up a tower?
At first glance it seems to slightly favor nuclear when it can operate 24/7, but nuclear power plants have a very long lifecycle 40+ years and projected battery costs for future replacements are lower than today’s values. Worse nuclear has a much longer lead time so you already need to compare battery prices ~5 years from now when you’re looking at building a new nuclear power plant.
PS: Note grid batteries are significantly cheaper when they can share inverters with solar generation and be directly charged via DC. Standalone prices are higher. Also, fast discharge peaking power reduces battery lifetimes over longer discharge nighttime useage.