3 ms·
Seasonal imbalances, as stated otherwise in thread. Image you have no sun for a month each year. Good luck building enough batteries to handle that. The strong
by yxhuvud 11y ago
Seasonal imbalances, as stated otherwise in thread. Image you have no sun for a month each year. Good luck building enough batteries to handle that.
The strong part of pumped hydropower is that it scales really really well even if the baseline efficiency isn't stellar.
- maxerickson 11y agoThis is a roughly 12 hour reservoir: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.9207263,-86.3978435,18314m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@43.9207263,-86.3978435,18314m/d... It's a big power station, 1.8 GW, but is only providing service to portion of consumers in Michigan. Making it 10 times bigger would probably be doable but it wouldn't be trivial. It's also one of the better places on the planet to build a single reservoir system (otherwise you need 2 enormous reservoirs). I wonder if the answer to seasonal variation will be to make fuel in the summer.
- xbmcuser 11y agoA larger connected world grid could solve some of the problems 10 years or so ago I read some articles of producing solar power in Africa and then using it in Europe.