this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
102 points (91.1% liked)

Technology

59605 readers
3415 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
L3s@fry.gs
L4s@fry.gs
L4s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
102
US Slows Plans To Retire Coal-Fired Plants as Power Demand From AI Surges (news.slashdot.org)
submitted 5 months ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world
41 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Ski@kbin.social 23 points 5 months ago (15 children)

I don't understand, clean nuclear power has never been easier. Why not just build some current gen nuke plants?

[–] placatedmayhem@lemmy.world 15 points 5 months ago (3 children)

As I understand it, planning new, grid-scale nuclear power plants takes 10-20 years. While this isn't a reason not to start that process now, it does mean something needs to fill the demand gap until the nuke plants (and other clean sources) come online to displace the dirty generation, or demand has to be artificially held down, through usage regulation or techniques like rolling blackouts, all of which I would imagine is pretty unpalatable.

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think it’s fair to predict energy consumption will continue to rise. With that timescale, it’s basically “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today”. Doesn’t solve the immediate issue, but if we keep not starting new nuclear projects, it’s going to remain an issue forever.

[–] placatedmayhem@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Oh, I totally agree -- didn't mean to give any impression otherwise. Filling the energy demand gap as quickly as possible with the least impactful generation source should be very high on societal goals, IMO. And it seems like that is what's happening, mostly. Solar, wind, and storage are the largest share of what's being brought up this year:

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/chart-nearly-all-new-us-power-plants-built-in-2024-will-be-clean-energy

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

That’s an amazing chart!

load more comments (11 replies)