this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
108 points (100.0% liked)
Futurology
4188 readers
59 users here now
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Finland has built so much wind turbines that in the summer when it's windy and warm electricity is sometimes literally free but in the winter the coldest days are usually also the ones when there's no wind and the prices can get incredibly high. We definitely need more energy storage and - in my opinion - nuclear power.
We dont'need nuclear, just more batteries
Battery + solar technology has advanced phenomenally in the past couple decades. We've already reached the point where solar + storage is cheaper than nuclear, even as far north as Sweden.
Save for niche applications, Nuclear energy is borderline redundant. Along with the classic points against nuclear (mining, meltdowns, waste), renewables are inherently more decentralised which promotes community ownership and reduces need for expensive infrastructure, plus it's about 10x faster to set up.
Well that settles it then.
Do the math on weeks worth of batteries. Gas turbines run on hydrogen is the only option right now.
A combination of solar, wind, geothermal (when possible) and tidal (when possible) should hopefully mean you don't need weeks of batteries.