Nuclear power has more financial and government support because it is a known entity. Nuclear power plants have been operating in the U.S. since 1974. The costs, benefits, and dangers are all well known. This makes it more attractive to investors and policymakers because it offers less risk than renewable energy sources, which remain a fairly new technology. It also provides a more stable base load than renewables. The intermittent nature of wind and solar power makes them highly unreliable. The base load on the grid needs to be maintained even when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining. Renewables also tend to be expensive and yield far less power than nuclear. Large scale increases in power from renewable sources would also require very expensive upgrades to the grid. For large countries that want to lower greenhouse gas emissions but also need to generate a lot of electricity, like the U.S. and China, nuclear looks very attractive.

Energy storage can be an important component to counteracting the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources and balancing the grid. There are many forms of energy storage, including flywheels, compressed air energy storage, thermal, pumped hydropower, and the most common, batteries. Entrepreneurs are investing in developing new battery technology that can be more cost effective for use as grid storage. Bill Gates has said he is investing in five different battery startups. Developing more efficient ways to store energy will be essential is solar and wind energy is to continue growing rapidly.