Berlin, Paris overcome rift over nuclear energy, French official says

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1. > Nuclear energy is seeing a burgeoning revival across Europe, with Belgium passing a law that puts a stop to a planned phase-out, while Sweden and some countries in central Europe are planning to build more nuclear reactors.

   Absolutely nobody could have seen that coming /s.

   It only took them a couple of nationwide scale power blackouts, like the one recently in Portugal/Spain, to realize that while renewable energy is great, the grid needs both stable baseline _and_ on demand maneuverable power generation – of which most renewables are neither; and aren’t stable or reliable to boot; to support the grid’s integrity during peak usage hours.

   The sun ain’t shining when all people come home from work and turn on all of their household and kitchen appliances. It also ain’t doing anything when they plug in all of their electric vehicles at night, or when they wake up to go to work in the morning. Sure there is also wind, but that ain’t always blowing and it’s not all that predictable. And very few countries are blessed with enough hydropower.

   There’s no getting more baseline than nuclear. It’s either that or invest in gigantic energy storage facilities, or build more gas powered plants – but Europe isn’t all that friendly with countries that either produce the batteries for them, or supply natural gas. Through no fault of their own, of course.

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