Your polls are silly. Oil is a tricky thing because it’s not priced as a single commodity. WTI crude is trading at a premium to Brent because it’s available, albeit more expensive to transport. There are zero indications that Brent prices will drop because of the Iran debacle. Both WTI and Brent drive gas prices higher. Even if WTI is at its peak, that don’t mean nuthin’
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Elon Musk is in the business of selling both solar panels and batteries. Of course he isn’t going to say anything good about SMRs.
Meanwhile, Google and Kairos Power are building a prototype SMR in Tennessee right now.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates’ TerraPower company is building a next-generation nuclear plant in Wyoming right now. Also, Microsoft and Constellation Energy are restarting the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Preparations for the restart are underway and reportedly ahead of schedule.
Meanwhile, Amazon, X-energy, and Energy Northwest are developing a nuclear reactor project in Washington state.
Meanwhile, Meta has signed deals with various companies for 6 GW of new nuclear capacity.
I guess none of these companies got Elon’s memo.
Since the capacity factor of solar PV is so poor, you need to build huge amounts of overcapacity, plus huge amounts of batteries to be able to supply enough electricity 24 hours a day. Its just too expensive, if you crunch the numbers.
_ Pete
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Wti is the may contract. Brent is june. Contango has brent higher than wti.
The market is in deep backwardation.
There is a lesson here, groups of people in the markets are often wrong and uninformed.
You won’t cut it by following Goofy.
Nobody is “following Goofy.” Heck, they can’t even see how anybody voted until they vote themselves.
They’re all coming to an easy to understand conclusion: Hormuz is virtually impossible to secure militarily, and what used to be an open passage is not now, nor is likely to be again anytime in the near future. Meanwhile the oil that did pass through the strait takes from 4=6 weeks to reach their eventual destinations, meaning the last of it will be getting to refiners in the next week or two. After that the real shortages will start showing up, which are almost sure to see prices increase again .
And all the bluster and fluster from the President is unlikely to change anything. He’s used to bullying, but other countries aren’t listening, witness the refusal of Spain and Italy to allow the use of their air bases, the reluctance of France an Germany to help out, the quietude from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states (who have been attacked thanks to our initiative.) The only one who wants this - besides us - is Israel, and suddenly even they are beginning to question the propaganda coming from official sources.
Nobody is “following” - anything but the clear and present danger today. You might shed your obvious inborn prejudices and do the same?
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Goof,
This is finance and econ not prez crap.
It is not a “they”. Most people ignore you. It is a modest group of the blind leading the blind.
You forgot to mention the China has one operating and one under construction.
Cheers
Qazulight
This is true, but won’t be true forever. As some is installed over time, the costs have been coming down and will continue to come down.
Avoiding PV would be a mistake.
I do not ignore goof; he has been one of my favorite fools for over 25 years. I am not blind and neither following nor leading.
Come on Leap, I know you know better, but nevertheless you are starting to resemble a permanently howling dog. I would howl too, given the madness going on, but I find that repetitive howling does not advance my case.
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The above statements are not true.
The companies developing SMRs still need to prove that they are competitive (cost, schedule, safety, waste and environment) with natural gas, wind and solar. Natural gas, wind and solar have been the winners over the large nuclear power plants around the world. US is not building large nuclear power plants. Even in China (where the most large nuclear plants are still being built) solar, wind and hydro are being built at a much greater rate than large nuclear power plants.
China’s Electrical Generation TWh
Nuclear 2014: 133 and in 2024: 451 = 3.4 x growth
Wind 2014: 160 and in 2024: 997 = 6.2 x growth
Solar 2014: 24 and in 2024: 239 = 10 x growth rate
Singling out PV solar + batteries to provide 100% of utility power 24/7 is a nonsense strawman. That is not how utilities work or the grid works anywhere in the world.
There are many ways to help PV solar cope with no sunshine periods. There is wind, hydro, natural gas, geothermal, biomass, and energy storage such as pumped hydro. Batteries continue to cost less and operate longer (100+ hour batteries are now available and even longer duration batteries are being developed). The grid allows electricity to be shifted from an area with excess capacity to make up for solar no sunshine periods.
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FWIW, just click on Results and you can see who voted for what.
DB2
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Yes, but I thought that precluded you from voting after, no?
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Not that I know of. After looking at the results, click on Vote and it sends you back to the original poll. Make a selection and then click Vote Now.
DB2
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I am surprised solar is lagging wind? Why is that? edit Did you leave off a zero?
edit I see 2014 to 2024. I was comparing the end of the column only.
Ah, thank you. I have never bothered to look at the results first, then decide what my opinion is. I figured once you’d peeked you would be prevented from going along with the crowd, because we’re mostly all more than 13 years old.
But I must say, if everybody is “following” me, then I have much more influence than I imagined. I’M AN INFLUENCER! Who knew? I must rush to capitalize on this, uh, capital. First up: design a hat. Maybe a cap, so all my tribesmen will know each other. Then: start posting a list of stocks to buy (after I’ve bought them, of course) to push the price up.
Finally, ship some Xanax off to Leap to calm him down. It’s the least I can do.
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True dat. That’s what I did. I waited to see what Goof voted for, then I voted for the same thing. I always follow Goof, he’s my guiding light.
Done, your wish is my command.
PS - Oil futures are up…
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Leap has me upset too.
Send me some too.
Cheers
Qazulight
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Gee that would surprise me as well.
You with power? When pigs fly.
@eldemonio Made you look
It is funny, we have 2026 in the bag. We have almost no ideology. We have very few positions. We have it. But y’all are running scared as if crushing oranges is your only hope to having it in the bag. We need more than that but y’all are running scared. It is not just here in fooldom. We will win and stand for nothing. They will be back. Fighting Vietnam over again when talking Iran is not taking a position.
You would have been very grateful if Vietnam was 8 weeks. That does not mean we don’t have it in the bag. God forbid we get honest.
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They have a license to build it, but not to operate it. When will it be completed and start commercial operation? My nuclear engineering guess is not before 2035.
Three Mile Island is not a SMR. It is an old large nuclear power plant.
These new SMRs will not be generating electricity until 2035 at the earliest.
Realistically these SMRs are not going to help the near future electrical demand from data centers. Thus, the only viable options for data centers are Natural Gas (which has a giant backlog) and Wind/Solar/Other Renewables (which are being hurt by Trump Admin).
Jaak
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Issue crypto ……………..