3 ms·

Tightly packed grids don't help because the generation vs consumption disparity is across hundreds or thousands of miles. HVDC and Ultra HVAC sounds nice on pa

Tightly packed grids don't help because the generation vs consumption disparity is across hundreds or thousands of miles. HVDC and Ultra HVAC sounds nice on paper, but the reasons the industry doesn't use them today are numerous. Again, the grid needs to provide 100% capacity 99.95% of the time. Renewables simply cannot handle that without massive storage that is still only theoretical - and often infeasible. Pumped hydro is a great example of a theoretical storage concept that would only work in a small number of places, and yet still would be a major undertaking with large losses in efficiency. These are just pie-in-the-sky ideas, or flat out unrealistic.

7952 7y ago
You complain about minsinformation and then say stuff like that. HVDC is very widely deployed for interconnectors and grid connections. And there are >20 UHV lines in China, many over 1,000 km long. This is not pie-in-the-sky but physics. By using appropriate technology you reduce tranmsision losses and/or cost. Also consumption and demand are already very spread out in a traditional grid. A generator can go offline and the power is sourced from another location. In fact this is essential for nuclear stations as large generators can fail rapily. I agree that pumped hydro has limited value, and nothing is a panacea on its own. But most of the nuclear states actually have significant deployed pumped hydro capacity. It is a complementary technology. When nuclear power stations fail they can leave a big hole in generating capacity. Pumped hydro can deliver >1GW in a short amount of time and fill that hole. Otherwise you need to maintain more spinning reserve.