alt Hacker News>but also frees us from dependency on other countries
It does not. It moves the dependency to the manufacturing source of the panels. That is China. No thanks.
Can we please just build more reactors? The insistence on solar is becoming a cargo cult (thanks, Elon Musk).
Replies
triceratops • today at 3:00 AM
This is gas brain thinking.
Solar panels are not gas. You don't burn them to make energy.
There is no dependency on solar panel manufacturers. Once you install a panel it's going to make electricity for the next 25 years. At least. After that you can recycle it and use it another 25 years.
Reactors on the other hand require fuel that is consumed. Unless you can mine it yourself, you're just trading an oil dependency for a uranium dependency.
➕ show 2 replies
China can't stop you from using solar panels you've already installed and you could manufacture new ones somewhere else.
Solar actually makes a lot of sense for a significant fraction of the grid. It's specifically excellent for electrifying transportation, because most cars are stationary at an office park during the majority of sunlight hours. Install chargers there and you solve the problem of people in apartments not having them at home and you don't have to worry about the intermittency because you're literally using it to charge batteries. Solar is cheaper at the cost of intermittency, so for the things where intermittency doesn't really matter it makes obvious sense.
When it sucks is when you need reliable power in winter at night. Which is what nuclear is good at. But then... you can use both, each one for the thing it's better at.