The USPS

[lawdog77]

China doesn't think so.

In my best Herm voice, here is an excellent article on nulear financing:
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/financing-nuclear-energy

[tower912]

Trying to imagine Herman's voice.

Nope.

They are attempting to restart Palisades Nuclear plant in Southwest Michigan after it shut down a couple of years ago.   Basically repurposing an old plant with new tech.   It continues to be a fascinating learning experience.

[Uncle Rico]

In my best Herm voice, here is an excellent article on nulear financing:
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/financing-nuclear-energy

None of this matters.  There is a subset of dunces in this country that immediately view any alternatives to fossil fuels as some attack on their way of life.  Amongst these dunces are the pols in the pockets of the fossil fuels industry, on both sides of the aisle.

It's purely political. 

[Spotcheck Billy]

95 year olds shouldn't be driving

Is your name actually Hovde? My mother wishes to contact you.

[Hards Alumni]

In my best Herm voice, here is an excellent article on nulear financing:
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/financing-nuclear-energy

Good article.

Deregulation led to a decrease in energy price, but also a decrease in innovation and reliability/maintenance.  The US needs government funding (despite the lack of apatite for it) to build out new reactors with modern design.  This spreads the costs out among the most amount of people.

I look at nuclear power as a necessity if we are to do away with burning fossil fuels.  Solar and Wind are excellent sources of power, but have a variable supply depending on conditions... and we don't have an effective way to store the extra energy they currently produce for low supply moments.  As a result, we are left to supply power on demand another way.  Hydro is reliable, but is pretty destructive, disruptive, and of course the users need to be somewhat near the hydro plant.  That leaves us with nuclear energy as the stop gap... since we're moving away from burning carbon.  It can be increased and decreased at the flip of a switch to keep the power running when it is needed most or to supplement demand.

I understand that no one wants to pay more for electricity if they don't have to, but the other option is to keep pumping carbon into the atmosphere until our world dies.  It seems like a decent solution to not ruin the planet for a couple of bucks... but I guess that's capitalism for you!

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

If we only used what we produced here, we would not be subject to the supply and demand issues.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2024/04/29/energy-independence-is-a-myth-candidates-dont-care-00154959

"And even if a country produces more than it consumes, oil is part of a global market. That means the fuel will still be exposed to international supply and demand disruptions that affect global prices, said Harrison Fell at North Carolina State University."

I know how economics works.

Yikes.

[Spotcheck Billy]

Good article.

Deregulation led to a decrease in energy price, but also a decrease in innovation and reliability/maintenance.  The US needs government funding (despite the lack of apatite for it) to build out new reactors with modern design.  This spreads the costs out among the most amount of people.

I look at nuclear power as a necessity if we are to do away with burning fossil fuels.  Solar and Wind are excellent sources of power, but have a variable supply depending on conditions... and we don't have an effective way to store the extra energy they currently produce for low supply moments.  As a result, we are left to supply power on demand another way.  Hydro is reliable, but is pretty destructive, disruptive, and of course the users need to be somewhat near the hydro plant.  That leaves us with nuclear energy as the stop gap... since we're moving away from burning carbon.  It can be increased and decreased at the flip of a switch to keep the power running when it is needed most or to supplement demand.

I understand that no one wants to pay more for electricity if they don't have to, but the other option is to keep pumping carbon into the atmosphere until our world dies.  It seems like a decent solution to not ruin the planet for a couple of bucks... but I guess that's capitalism for you!

[jesmu84]

Good article.

Deregulation led to a decrease in energy price, but also a decrease in innovation and reliability/maintenance.  The US needs government funding (despite the lack of apatite for it) to build out new reactors with modern design.  This spreads the costs out among the most amount of people.

I look at nuclear power as a necessity if we are to do away with burning fossil fuels.  Solar and Wind are excellent sources of power, but have a variable supply depending on conditions... and we don't have an effective way to store the extra energy they currently produce for low supply moments.  As a result, we are left to supply power on demand another way.  Hydro is reliable, but is pretty destructive, disruptive, and of course the users need to be somewhat near the hydro plant.  That leaves us with nuclear energy as the stop gap... since we're moving away from burning carbon.  It can be increased and decreased at the flip of a switch to keep the power running when it is needed most or to supplement demand.

I understand that no one wants to pay more for electricity if they don't have to, but the other option is to keep pumping carbon into the atmosphere until our world dies.  It seems like a decent solution to not ruin the planet for a couple of bucks... but I guess that's capitalism for you!

Good stuff.

Maybe we should consider energy production as a societal good/requirement and not worry about ROI. Maybe even consider it as a national security issue.

When it comes to other national security needs, we don't worry about cost.

[dgies9156]

What does nuclear power have to do with delivering letters?

[MuggsyB]

Muggsy

Your grandma sounds like a perfect grandma. Reading about how she lives her life put a big smile on my face. I hope you two are exchanging letters for a very long time.

She is the perfect grandma Goose.  And great grandma.  No doubt about that.  Although she wants me to get married and have kids.  She has gone to nearly every sporting event of my niece and nephew's since they were tykes and did the same for my sister and I back in the day.  She still cooks 3 times a week and gardens.  My sister and Uncle have broached the subject of her eventually moving to an assisted living community,  but she's very adamant about staying in her home.   She also said "I'm not going to live with a bunch of old people that are dying".   

[Uncle Rico]

She is the perfect grandma Goose.  And great grandma.  No doubt about that.  Although she wants me to get married and have kids.  She has gone to nearly every sporting event of my niece and nephew's since they were tykes and did the same for my sister and I back in the day.  She still cooks 3 times a week and gardens.  My sister and Uncle have broached the subject of her eventually moving to an assisted living community,  but she's very adamant about staying in her home.   She also said "I'm not going to live with a bunch of old people that are dying". 

You're not married with kids?  SMDH

[MuggsyB]

You're not married with kids?  SMDH

I'm not the easiest person to deal with.  Although my dog loves me. 

[lawdog77]

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2024/04/29/energy-independence-is-a-myth-candidates-dont-care-00154959

"And even if a country produces more than it consumes, oil is part of a global market. That means the fuel will still be exposed to international supply and demand disruptions that affect global prices, said Harrison Fell at North Carolina State University."

Yes, if we were energy independent is the actual sense of the phrase, the price of exported fuel would be subject to global issues. Since we would not be importing energy, the use internally would be more of a fixed cost. We would not be subject to import supply and demand issues.

Harrison fell is using independence in the sense of exports>imports.   Hopefully you are learning about true energy independence.

[Uncle Rico]

I'm not the easiest person to deal with.  Although my dog loves me. 

You need to be making babies

[reinko]

Don't think I have seen it mentioned, but a major reason the USPS is in the red, is that by law they have to pre-fund their retirement, nearly no other govt agency and certainly not a private business has to do this.

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/annual-reports/fy2010/ar2010_4_002.htm#:~:text=Unlike%20any%20other%20public%20or,out%20until%20some%20future%20date.

https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Yes, if we were energy independent is the actual sense of the phrase, the price of exported fuel would be subject to global issues. Since we would not be importing energy, the use internally would be more of a fixed cost. We would not be subject to import supply and demand issues.

Harrison fell is using independence in the sense of exports>imports.   Hopefully you are learning about true energy independence.

You probably should read it again.

[dgies9156]

Don't think I have seen it mentioned, but a major reason the USPS is in the red, is that by law they have to pre-fund their retirement, nearly no other govt agency and certainly not a private business has to do this.

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/annual-reports/fy2010/ar2010_4_002.htm#:~:text=Unlike%20any%20other%20public%20or,out%20until%20some%20future%20date.

https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/

The alternative is Illinois. $200 billion public pension deficit.

Chicago's is more than $100 billion, if I recall correctly.

Yikes!

[Pakuni]

The alternative is Illinois. $200 billion public pension deficit.

Chicago's is more than $100 billion, if I recall correctly.

Yikes!

First, it's debt, not deficit.  Pretty important distinction.
Second, your figures are way off. By tens of millions.

[4 Falling Turds]

None of this matters.  There is a subset of dunces in this country that immediately view any alternatives to fossil fuels as some attack on their way of life.  Amongst these dunces are the pols in the pockets of the fossil fuels industry, on both sides of the aisle.

It's purely political.

That's moreso my point. It could happen,  but it won't. It's too expensive for US. For China, it's not.

[4 Falling Turds]

Good article.

Deregulation led to a decrease in energy price, but also a decrease in innovation and reliability/maintenance.  The US needs government funding (despite the lack of apatite for it) to build out new reactors with modern design.  This spreads the costs out among the most amount of people.

I look at nuclear power as a necessity if we are to do away with burning fossil fuels.  Solar and Wind are excellent sources of power, but have a variable supply depending on conditions... and we don't have an effective way to store the extra energy they currently produce for low supply moments.  As a result, we are left to supply power on demand another way.  Hydro is reliable, but is pretty destructive, disruptive, and of course the users need to be somewhat near the hydro plant.  That leaves us with nuclear energy as the stop gap... since we're moving away from burning carbon.  It can be increased and decreased at the flip of a switch to keep the power running when it is needed most or to supplement demand.

I understand that no one wants to pay more for electricity if they don't have to, but the other option is to keep pumping carbon into the atmosphere until our world dies.  It seems like a decent solution to not ruin the planet for a couple of bucks... but I guess that's capitalism for you!

There's an insane amount of battery storage startups popping up on the west coast. I think that's where this trends, personally. Texas particularly is all in on solar and wind despite what the loud drooling voices might say otherwise.

To repeat myself one more time, nuclear would be great. But the capitalistic economics aren't there and that is how this country is run. Case in point demanding an essential service like USPS having to be run like a break even business

[Hards Alumni]

There's an insane amount of battery storage startups popping up on the west coast. I think that's where this trends, personally. Texas particularly is all in on solar and wind despite what the loud drooling voices might say otherwise.

To repeat myself one more time, nuclear would be great. But the capitalistic economics aren't there and that is how this country is run. Case in point demanding an essential service like USPS having to be run like a break even business

I'd be totally on board with that.  Especially if the materials were easy to source.

[4 Falling Turds]

I'd be totally on board with that.  Especially if the materials were easy to source.

Energy is really hard to store long term but it's getting much better. There's been some pretty interesting work going on involving advanced storage with hybrid wind/solar farms (peak energy demand often coincides with high generation of one or the other but not both).

Where you run into big problems with the equipment is aggressive production curtailment when demand is lower, so they're trying to figure out how to best minimize that through siphoning off the power into storage. Electricity degrades pretty quickly, but if they can come up with some solutions there they can manage the grid demand and production way better. Would be a game changer for managing rural grids.

There's so much open wasteland in Texas a lot of people pretty much realized they may as well generate power on it from free natural resources. Staffing these facilities is the real challenge but not relevant here.

[rocky_warrior]

There's an insane amount of battery storage startups popping up on the west coast. I think that's where this trends, personally. Texas particularly is all in on solar and wind despite what the loud drooling voices might say otherwise.

I was thinking about commenting earlier how much battery capacity is growing, and how cheap it's getting, relatively.  Thanks for chiming in.

Side note, read this article this morning.  Illuminating...

https://www.vox.com/climate/372852/solar-power-energy-growth-record-us-climate-china


Side note 2, my solar and powerwall installation was finished last week, yet it's disappointing I'll need to wait at least a few weeks more for Xcel to give "permission to operate".  I really should have started the "power" thread a while ago.

USPS hasn't delivered anything to my house all week.  But there's only one thing I think they should have delivered...

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I was thinking about commenting earlier how much battery capacity is growing, and how cheap it's getting, relatively.  Thanks for chiming in.

Side note, read this article this morning.  Illuminating...

https://www.vox.com/climate/372852/solar-power-energy-growth-record-us-climate-china


Side note 2, my solar and powerwall installation was finished last week, yet it's disappointing I'll need to wait at least a few weeks more for Xcel to give "permission to operate".  I really should have started the "power" thread a while ago.

USPS hasn't delivered anything to my house all week.  But there's only one thing I think they should have delivered...

Sounds like you have some POWER being delivered to your home.
It sounds pretty cool.

[Scoop Snoop]

I'm not the easiest person to deal with.  Although my dog loves me. 

The wealthiest woman in a small town had a dog that loved her dearly but growled or snapped at her friends who she knew perfectly well associated with her only because of her social status. When one of her "friends" asked why she kept that snarly dog, she replied "because he doesn't know how rich I am."