> $6B for a mere five years is highway robbery. Installing $4B of solar and $2B of batteries will result in 20-40 years of carbon-free electricity, and far far far more of it.
Because the goal isn't generating arbitrary amounts of carbon-free energy. The goal is displacing fossil fuel use with carbon-free energy. California is already hitting daytime saturation of energy demand for about a month of the year. $2B in batteries isn't actually going very far. The US manages to build battery storage at ~500/KWh. So 2 Billion is only about 4 GWh. The Diablo canyon plant puts out 2.5 GW of electricity, so this is less than 2 hours worth of battery storage relative to the plant its replacing.
Because the goal isn't generating arbitrary amounts of carbon-free energy. The goal is displacing fossil fuel use with carbon-free energy. California is already hitting daytime saturation of energy demand for about a month of the year. $2B in batteries isn't actually going very far. The US manages to build battery storage at ~500/KWh. So 2 Billion is only about 4 GWh. The Diablo canyon plant puts out 2.5 GW of electricity, so this is less than 2 hours worth of battery storage relative to the plant its replacing.