Two years ago, sodium-ion battery pioneer Natron Energy was busy preparing its specially formulated sodium batteries for mass production. The company slipped a little past its 2023 kickoff plans, but it didn't fall too far behind as far as mass battery production goes. It officially commenced…
        • Sl00k@programming.devEnglish
          31·
          6 months ago

          Perhaps a bad example because most people undermine them, but China has still decided to move forward with 4 different nuclear facilities this year despite having an ABUNDANCE of solar manufacturing. If they found that decision worthwhile I would think the opposite, assuming most of the reasoning is current battery tech can’t sustain dark periods at a massive scale, but I’m not an expert.

          Also just saw you mentioned nuclear costs in another comment, I suggest you look at South Korea and China’s cost per facility compared to the US, they’re able to build and maintain facilities at about half the US does.

          • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            Literally every source I’ve come across has nuclear being massively more expensive than renewables + storage, at least in the West.

            The market decides what to invest in in a capitalist economy and they will tend to go for the thing that makes them the most money in the shortest time possible and that’s why new nuclear isn’t happening much.

            If you’re advocating for public ownership of utilities so there’s central planning and long term thinking instead of profit chasing, that’s an interesting debate to have.

      • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        153·
        6 months ago

        This is exactly why I love nuclear

        And who can forget the classic, “Where is the waste from fossil fuels? Take a deep breath, it’s in your lungs. Where is the waste from nuclear power? Where we store it.”

        Yes there have been disasters but the waste from those are tracked, in a specific location, and can be cleaned up. The default state of fossil fuels hits every living breathing thing on Earth.

        And even factoring in the impact from disasters nuclear is still the safest. And we have even safer designs for reactors nowadays then the reactors that had those disasters.

        • unphazed@lemmy.worldEnglish
          22·
          6 months ago

          And now we’re in an age of nuclear fusion. My kid or grandkids may live in a world powered by even cleaner reactors. Which is great because they will probably have to live entirely indoors.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            4·
            6 months ago

            Eh, I feel like we’ve been in an age of nuclear fusion for decades, it’s always just around the corner…

            But maybe this latest set of breakthroughs will be it. I’ll believe it when I see a production scale plant.

            • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              6 months ago

              It has value in terms of research but I’ve seen no evidence that we’re even remotely close to hooking a fusion reactor up to a grid.

      • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        6 months ago

        Sure, I get that. My priorities are clean energy that is as cheap as possible and nuclear just can’t compete on cost.