Japan on gas, coal power building spree to fill nuclear void

[kristopher]

13. You can build coal plants optimized to support variable generation.

As can be seen with the quote GG pulled from the Guardian, the economics clash. That clash is specifically keyed to the inability of the extremely large scale turbines (both coal and nuclear) to cycle efficiently and rapidly. The older design can only be profitable when it is paid to run 24/7, shutting down (as much as possible) only for scheduled mx.

That is their economic niche.

The new plants that Germany built/is building were planned to both increase overall plant efficiency significantly and allow them to fill an economic niche that is able to retain its profitability in the face of a steadily declining load factor, or to put another way, in the face of selling a steadily declining amount of electricity; or to put it another way, in the fact of burning a steadily declining amount of coal.

Can you tell me of a country that has a more aggressive plan to move away from carbon? (Before you cite France, you might want to consider that their intentions are to move away from nuclear.) Most of the criticisms EE's nuclear club levels against Germany are built implicitly on the assumption that in the realm of generation, going large scale nuclear would not entail nuclear working in tandem with carbon generation. And that spending would also be undertaken to make sure that carbon generation was as efficient as possible in its role as a back up/complement for nuclear.

It makes sense to plan as Germany has. If you don't understand the need for the elements of the plan, it isn't because the plan lacks merit.

And, yes, Japan's emissions have skyrocketed, but that speaks to the fragile nature of the system built on nuclear than it does anything else.