Hi Mr L. I'm back in NZ now. We have fibre to the home over here. The fibre plugs into my modem less than 2m from my computer. Speeds in NZ are generally much faster than in Australia. Average availability is something like 150 Mb/s download, and 75 Mb/s upload. My plan guaranties 100 Mb/s download speed and usually hovers at, or just above, that figure (it will be throttled). My upload speed is about 45 Mb/s.
On the subjects of batteries and nuclear:
Grid level storage batteries are now an accepted grid stabilising technology used extensively around the world. Many parts of Australia (including Vic) already had very poor supply regulation even before renewables, and this has now been largely fixed by batteries. The only issue I have with the idea, is the use of lithium ion batteries, which is a very expensive and wasteful use of a resource. There are much simpler and potentially lower cost - they will need to be scaled up - alternatives, that are aimed specifically at grid level storage. Some are becoming commercially available now, and will hopefully start to displace lithium ion in this application. Larger grid batteries, designed to work with intermittent renewables to supply genuine base load power, are really not an economically viable proposition. Which segues nicely to the next topic:
Nuclear power, in the form of
molten salt thorium reactors, is the only thing that can save us. Renewables are not the answer as they are mostly just too expensive, and come with a tremendous environmental footprint. Ultimately they just replace one problem with several others. Fusion is promising, but is still at least 25 years away (worth noting also, that this has already been the case for the last 40 years). It is likely to be an extremely expensive alternative, and the plants will have to be very large to make them as efficient as possible, making them suitable only for regions with large populations.
I've posted on this subject before and received about 2 likes, which suggests to me that people are not taking the time to follow the links and understand the technology or the arguments. It is worth taking the time. It will blow your mind - and perhaps leave you more than a little angry at how the opportunity of molten salt reactors was passed over in favour of light water reactors 55 years ago, due to the political imperatives of the nuclear arms race.
Advantages of molten salt reactor running thorium fuel cycle:
Thorium is much more abundant (and cheaper) than uranium (about 4 times). It is currently thrown out in the tailings of many existing mining operations. Unlike uranium, thorium does not require enrichment. Unlike uranium, thorium is not fissile, but fertile, making it much safer (and cheaper) to handle. It is estimated that the known thorium reserves could supply all the worlds current energy consumption (that's everything from dung to uranium, plus all renewables) for over a thousand years. The fuel cycles in a molten salt reactor are far more efficient (about 2 orders of magnitude) than light water reactors in extracting all available nuclear energy. The volume of nuclear waste produced is thus far less (about 2 orders of magnitude). Average half life of the nuclear waste is far shorter (about 3 orders of magnitude). The molten salt reactor is far simpler and safer to operate. The molten salt reactor is far simpler, smaller and cheaper to build (it was actually initially considered as a possible means of powering an aircraft, but proved to be a little too heavy for that). A molten salt reactor can use stockpiled weapons grade uranium and plutonium, and existing nuclear waste, as fuel. Molten salt reactor technology is not a good fit with nuclear weapons manufacture. Thorium is not fissile, and the fissile materials generated in the fuel cycle are very difficult too extract. Also, no enrichment is required (which can be dual purpose for bomb making). This last point was viewed as a major disadvantage back in the cold war, resulting in the research programme at Oak Ridge being shut down in 1969.
All IMO.
Here are some links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-salt_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO This last link explores other reactor types as well:
VIDEO