Hungary to sink barges and build a sill on Danube to keep nuclear plant running(www.nbcnews.com)

2 pointsby ceejayoz2 hours ago1 comment

bell-cot2 hours ago
> The Soviet-built plant, which uses water from the Danube to cool its four reactors, is currently operating at little more than 10% of its 2,000 megawatt capacity due to low water levels. It supplies Hungary with around a third of its electricity.
I'll guess that should be "It normally supplies Hungary with"?
Which seems like too many eggs in one basket, but the USSR was big on that kind of grandiosity. Consider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_High_Dam
- toomuchtodo2 hours ago
  Total nuclear generation capacity in Hungary is 1.92GW as of this comment (per entsoe.eu capacity data). Current production is ~400MW sustained due to cooling limitations. Forward looking is hotter and drier in Europe. They're going to replace this nuclear generator with solar, wind, and batteries at some point. Assuming 1-2GW/month of solar deployment seen in Western Europe (Germany, Spain), they could replace this generation in less than six months with firm renewables and batteries, achieving parity with current nuclear capacity factor (~85%, as of this comment). A 450MW solar battery hybrid project turns up before the end of this year (Szihalom), and there are >2GW of renewables in the development pipeline.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paks_Nuclear_Power_Plant
  https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/HU/live/fifteen_min...
  https://www.windindustry.com/news/world/article-7575-hungary...
  https://www.pv-tech.org/ebrd-finance-renalfa-450mw-hungary-s...
  https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/solar-overtakes-gas...