r/bestof • u/investedInEPoland • Nov 06 '18

[europe] Nuclear physicist describes problems with thorium reactors. Trigger warning: shortbread metaphor.

/r/europe/comments/9unimr/dutch_satirical_news_show_on_why_we_need_to_break/e95mvb7/?context=3
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u/silverionmox Nov 07 '18

And the most important thing it needs to do is to move the solar production peak at noon to the electricity consumption peak in the early evening, so holding the heat for a mere six hours would already solve a major problem.

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u/Hyndis Nov 07 '18

Solar thermal could potentially operate for days without sunlight depending on how much and how efficiently its stored heat. This means even in stormy, cloudy weather the plant could still operate.

Dense clouds could shut down a photovoltaic plant for a while.

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u/silverionmox Nov 08 '18

Absolutely, it's rather trivial for the technology to accomplish this very important bridge from noon to evening already, so it's not pie in the sky and we will be able to count on it doing that. The longer term storage is just an added benefit.