8 mo. ago • 83%

Australia nuclear facility installs massive rooftop solar system to save $2 million

reneweconomy.com.au Australia nuclear facility installs massive rooftop solar system to save $2 million

The power hungry synchrotron operated by ANSTO is hosting a massive rooftop solar system to cut energy costs.

26 comments

That headline is a bait and switch.

One of the major nuclear research facilities belonging to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)’s is installing a major rooftop solar system that will save $2 million.

150
- To be honest even if it was a power plant... they're already in the business of generating power. If generating more clean power in the same space is an option, that sounds great
  
  104
  
  Power plants still need power to operate and even your own supply is not free.
  
  50
  
  Yeah, and nuclear reactors use a lot of electrical power anyway. When they're first starting they need to draw a lot from the grid and they all have powerful backup generators and battery banks to keep the systems online in the event they need to suddenly shutdown the reactor.
  
  The implausible thing would actually be getting approval to put the panels up, since reactors have high standards for checking the consequences of different materials being used on-site.
  
  30
  
  It's free real estate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  
  7
- Although, why the fuck are we not plastering those giant nuclear vent thingies (the technical term) with solar panels? Or really any surface that can support them?
  
  15
  
  Because solar panel efficiency is already pretty low so it's best to put them in the areas and in the orientation in which they will receive the most light
  
  11
  
  At least here in Australia, we believe in the right for a select group of billionaires to make money off the land in the form of coal mining, and renewable energy threatens that right.
  
  Now that the world is turning away from coal as much as possible, we're now pivoting to allow a select group of billionaires to make money off the land in the form of uranium mining, and renewable energy also threatens that.
  
  10
It sounds very dangerous to have a solar system that close to a nuclear facility, much less that close to Earth.

54
Why is this posted in c/NotTheOnion?

22
- Because you can't have two different sources of energy! It's antithetical to existence! Only one thing can ever exist or chaos reigns.
  
  16
  
  In bavaria they made exactly this. You have a "Vorzugsgebiet" (loosely translated area of favourited power accumulation) for either wind or solar. Some people then had the outrageous idea of setting up a wind turbine in the middle of a solar park. Guess what happened? It wasn't approved because it was only allowed to build a solar park there. You can't make this stuff up. That's German bureaucracy for you.
  
  4
  
  It doesn't have a nuclear power plant in it lmao. Read the article before being smug about it.
  
  1
- For context, the conservative party here in Aus is pushing hard for a transition to nuclear power, rather than renewables.
  
  6
Australia doesn't have any nuclear power plants.

21
- So, what are they doing in their nucular facility! Sounds very suspicious.
  
  16
  
  I actually stand corrected as it looks like ANSTO has a research reactor capable of producing in the megawatt range.
  
  The facility seems to mostly do technologies and medical research, but also prepares uranium for export. Australia has a fair amount of uranium.
  
  8
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-pool_Australian_lightwater_reactor
  
  -2
  
  that is not a power plant. a power plant supplies power…
  
  11
Even they see the writing on the wall about $/kWh of nuclear.

-24
- They’re in Australia, they’re obviously already connected to the electrical grid, and have the free space. I don’t really see how taking advantage of an obviously free win is in any way a “sick burn” of nuclear.
  
  34
  
  Especially considering this is going on a research facility… and in fact some of their research can benefit the solar industry!!
  
  17
  
  Because it's about nuclear power bad. Saving the planet is secondary to proving one's moral superiority over other people!
  
  /s
  
  4
  
  The irony here is that the conservative party in Australia is pushing hard for a transition to nuclear power, despite the fact that we have pretty good conditions to reliably harness several forms of renewable energy in this country. That's why this headline is ironic, setting aside the fact that it's misleading (given that this is a research facility, we don't currently have any nuclear power plants here).
  
  1
- This is a research facility, not a power plant.
  
  13
- Someone doesn't know how to read the article
  
  5
- Hilariously uninformed on the article
  
  1

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