Citation required. You cannot replace Diablo Canyon with $6B of solar and batteries.
Installing your proposed $4B of solar will get you 4GW at peak, which will produce about 5840 GWh per year due to variations in sunlight over the days and seasons. Diablo Canyon produces 18,000 GWh per year. Replacing Diablo Canyon with solar will cost $12B plus batteries, maintenance, and operations staff.
The panels do but that just means the far more efficient, next gen panels that come on the market five years from now will be purchased and used to replace the original set.
So in reality, the often cited “20-40 years of utilization” they offer is nice to say but has minimal practical impact on future costs.
Installing your proposed $4B of solar will get you 4GW at peak, which will produce about 5840 GWh per year due to variations in sunlight over the days and seasons. Diablo Canyon produces 18,000 GWh per year. Replacing Diablo Canyon with solar will cost $12B plus batteries, maintenance, and operations staff.
Figures/Sources:
- $1m buys 1MW of solar panels that provides 1,460 MWh per year. https://coldwellsolar.com/commercial-solar-blog/how-much-inv...
- Diablo Canyon produces 18,000 GWh per year. https://diablocanyonpanel.org/history-of-dcpp/