The Ontario government’s new policy directive to allow bids from natural gas and nuclear energy may hinder the province’s ability to transition to a cleaner and more sustainable energy future.
Solar is fast to install and “cheap” but the lifespan of panels is no more than 20 years, and batteries last 1s of years if cycled every day. Not to mention Ontario only gets ~1200kWh/m2 per year of sunlight, in the southern US it’s >2000.
Nuclear is very expensive and takes a long time to build you are getting a plant that will last for decades without needing to have every part replaced and gives you more than 20kWh/m2 including the area taken up by support buildings and employee parking. (The Pickering plant is about 1km2 and puts out 23.6TWh)
Solar is fast to install and “cheap” but the lifespan of panels is no more than 20 years, and batteries last 1s of years if cycled every day. Not to mention Ontario only gets ~1200kWh/m2 per year of sunlight, in the southern US it’s >2000.
Nuclear is very expensive and takes a long time to build you are getting a plant that will last for decades without needing to have every part replaced and gives you more than 20kWh/m2 including the area taken up by support buildings and employee parking. (The Pickering plant is about 1km2 and puts out 23.6TWh)