Summer numbers are irrelevant, because winter power draw is much higher.
> I’m not looking for the highest demand for the year but in France Monday January 2 high 59GW
Typical year might see 80GW in the winter. The record is north of 100GW, but that's something for which a country will import, restart decomissioned thermal plants and/or curb industrial consumers.
> Further, there are multiple kinds of nuclear power plants and different ways of operating them, if you want load following you pay a premium that increases as you need to ramp up and down ever faster, and another premium for increased thermal stress etc.
Yes, that's part of the issue. My point was, the constraint for storage is an economic optimization constraint. It's not in the same category as "tomorrow there's no wind so there's no power".
> As to wind and solar
I know the theory, my point is that wind/solar don't synergize with nuclear. There's a reason renewables proponents bash so hard against the baseload concept. If your renewables don't produce during peak hour, you have to build capacity ; that necessary capacity will see its load factor deteriorated because it then has to give way to renewables when they come online. The only way this is profitable is if you profit from not spending fuel - i.e. if your plants would have used gas.
Summer numbers are irrelevant, because winter power draw is much higher.
> I’m not looking for the highest demand for the year but in France Monday January 2 high 59GW
Typical year might see 80GW in the winter. The record is north of 100GW, but that's something for which a country will import, restart decomissioned thermal plants and/or curb industrial consumers.
> Further, there are multiple kinds of nuclear power plants and different ways of operating them, if you want load following you pay a premium that increases as you need to ramp up and down ever faster, and another premium for increased thermal stress etc.
Yes, that's part of the issue. My point was, the constraint for storage is an economic optimization constraint. It's not in the same category as "tomorrow there's no wind so there's no power".
> As to wind and solar
I know the theory, my point is that wind/solar don't synergize with nuclear. There's a reason renewables proponents bash so hard against the baseload concept. If your renewables don't produce during peak hour, you have to build capacity ; that necessary capacity will see its load factor deteriorated because it then has to give way to renewables when they come online. The only way this is profitable is if you profit from not spending fuel - i.e. if your plants would have used gas.