Of course he's for nuclear energy; he's not very smart, as witnessed in the emails to other top tech CEOs, disclosed in some recent court cases.
Like most SV types, he doesn't understand that just because there's no CO2 coming out the stack doesn't mean there's no CO2 footprint. The plant construction, operations, and fuel supply all have enormous CO2 footprints.
Nuclear is also the most expensive per kw/hr of any method of generation. As it matured as a generation method, it has only become more expensive.
...which is why nuclear and coal plants have been shutting down across the US and elsewhere; they just don't make good fiscal sense for power companies. Wind and solar have plunged in cost and are almost an order of magnitude cheaper, and energy storage tech is rapidly maturing. And no, this isn't hurting us; we're building out solar and wind at a rate 7 times faster than the nuclear capacity being shut down.
They also don't have any of the security or safety concerns. They can also be distributed far more easily; nuclear power plants are very difficult to site because you have to find an intersection between "the grid can take tens of gigawatts of power being injected here", "there is a plant nearby that can supply the plant with power during standby or for cold start" and "it is geologically stable enough". Contrary to popular rants, the biggest problem isn't NIMBYism.
Further, nuclear can't change load any faster than on a timescale of "many hours" so it's only usable for base load.
> While he has also spoken about increasing oil production, that's about energy security -
You know how you get "energy security"? Diversifying energy sources. IE: Wind, solar, energy storage, and more HVDC transmission lines.
>Like most SV types, he doesn't understand that just because there's no CO2 coming out the stack doesn't mean there's no CO2 footprint.
First off, this is an extremely uncharitable take. Where did he say that there is no CO2 footprint? Second, the CO2 footprint is still much less than for fossil fuels.
>Nuclear is also the most expensive per kw/hr of any method of generation.
This is not even close to true. Not in other countries, anyway. I gave some citations elsewhere in the thread.
>You know how you get "energy security"? Diversifying energy sources.
The idea behind these statements was that Europe should be less reliant on Russian oil and gas. Local production is the most straightforward route. Nothing about that is incompatible with diversification. But you cannot snap your fingers and replace a machine that burns oil with one that runs on electricity.
Like most SV types, he doesn't understand that just because there's no CO2 coming out the stack doesn't mean there's no CO2 footprint. The plant construction, operations, and fuel supply all have enormous CO2 footprints.
Nuclear is also the most expensive per kw/hr of any method of generation. As it matured as a generation method, it has only become more expensive.
...which is why nuclear and coal plants have been shutting down across the US and elsewhere; they just don't make good fiscal sense for power companies. Wind and solar have plunged in cost and are almost an order of magnitude cheaper, and energy storage tech is rapidly maturing. And no, this isn't hurting us; we're building out solar and wind at a rate 7 times faster than the nuclear capacity being shut down.
They also don't have any of the security or safety concerns. They can also be distributed far more easily; nuclear power plants are very difficult to site because you have to find an intersection between "the grid can take tens of gigawatts of power being injected here", "there is a plant nearby that can supply the plant with power during standby or for cold start" and "it is geologically stable enough". Contrary to popular rants, the biggest problem isn't NIMBYism.
Further, nuclear can't change load any faster than on a timescale of "many hours" so it's only usable for base load.
> While he has also spoken about increasing oil production, that's about energy security -
You know how you get "energy security"? Diversifying energy sources. IE: Wind, solar, energy storage, and more HVDC transmission lines.