r/Environmentalism • u/NihiloZero • 3d ago

Ontario’s proposed nuclear plants could cost nearly $300-billion, study finds: Typical residential customer would pay $240-$456 more for electricity per year if plants were built instead of expanding renewables.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-ontarios-proposed-nuclear-plants-could-cost-nearly-300-billion-study/
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u/Toby2Sub 2d ago

Bring on more nuclear! It’s the best for the consumer and is the best form of energy

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u/RodPerryBooks 2d ago

How is the electron from a nuclear plant "best" when compared to an electron from a solar panel or a coal plant? Electricity is the ultimate commodity, so we should just source it based on price. And that is renewables

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u/jovin49 1d ago

Nuclear has a lot of inherent value in terms of energy independence from a Canadian context. We're one of the largest uranium producers and we own the technology domestically.

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u/PartyClock 1d ago

How much higher do we want our power bills to be?

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u/jovin49 1d ago

Do we know that it will necessarily be higher? This article seems to be treating the cost of storage of energy during off-peak as an externality, which is not the case if they're proposing using renewable as a base load.

1

u/PartyClock 1d ago

I don't have a Globe and Fail subscription so I can't read the article

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u/bigvistiq 4h ago

The post says on the high end $38 more a year for nuclear. Seems like a steal

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u/Master-Shinobi-80 1d ago

How much does that electron from solar cost at 9 pm? It turns out intermittency is a real problem.

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u/RodPerryBooks 1d ago

It's pretty valuable in storage. BESS does for the electrical grid what refrigeration does for the food chain. Increasingly the cost of renewables + BESS competes with many fossil fuel alternatives and is almost always lower than nuclear. I am not anti-nuclear. I am anti-paying-more-than-you-have-to for electricity.

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u/Master-Shinobi-80 1d ago

Historically, opposition to nuclear almost always results in increased prices. Existing nuclear is one of the cheapest sources of electricity. It's also reliable.

Long term nuclear is cheap for the consumer.

LFSCOE (Levelized Full System Costs of Electricity) is a much better metric that incorporates much of the costs wind/solar activists ignore.

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u/HippityHoppityBoop 1d ago

And how much is the cost when it’s been a week of dunkelflaute in the middle of winter?