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I don't think here are available storage solution for renewables and even if there was it would need to be a solution scalable without a risk of running out of
by malpighien 7y ago
I don't think here are available storage solution for renewables and even if there was it would need to be a solution scalable without a risk of running out of resources to make the batteries.
Renewables are great but they work on the shoulders of nuclear/coal which need to pick up the load when there is no sun/wind.
Renewables feel like paying more for getting less with different but not necessarily less pollution issues.
- mrec 7y agoStorage doesn't have to mean batteries. I'd have thought approaches like pumped hydro [1] could scale pretty well. I vaguely recall a similar story from a couple of years back that basically involved lifting giant concrete blocks. [1] http://www.british-hydro.org/pumped-storage/ http://www.british-hydro.org/pumped-storage/
- malpighien 7y agoIf those solutions were viable at scale then countries like germany or england using lot of renewables and coal (gas or gb) would have been using them already.
- pfdietz 7y agoThey'd only be using them now if they cost less than gas + current carbon taxes. The question is: at what level of carbon taxes would nuclear displace gas, vs. what level would renewables + storage displace gas. In the US, CO2 taxes would have to exceed $300/ton for new nuclear to displace gas CC baseload, and for intermittent applications the needed tax would be far higher.
- adrianN 7y agoThe most scalable storage that I know of is making Hydrogen or Methane and using the existing infrastructure for strategic gas reserves to store it.