Sweden's parliament on Tuesday (20 June) adopted a new energy target, giving the right-wing government the green light to push forward with plans to build new nuclear plants in a country that voted 40 years ago to phase out atomic power.
While it’s more than 5 years old, and energy storage has gotten better, the fact still remains that solar and wind need some sort of backup power source, and the only thing that can currently respond fast enough, with enough capacity, is natural gas.
The really fucked up part of all of this is, fossil fuel backed groups, including some environmental groups, are pushing to take nuclear offline in favor of solar and wind (but really natural gas peaker plants that can charge exorbitant rates)
Here’s a fun little article.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/05/15/solar-and-wind-lock-in-fossil-fuels-that-makes-saving-the-climate-harder-slower-more-expensive/
While it’s more than 5 years old, and energy storage has gotten better, the fact still remains that solar and wind need some sort of backup power source, and the only thing that can currently respond fast enough, with enough capacity, is natural gas.
The really fucked up part of all of this is, fossil fuel backed groups, including some environmental groups, are pushing to take nuclear offline in favor of solar and wind (but really natural gas peaker plants that can charge exorbitant rates)