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> Wrong type of power. I don't think you explained this. It seems as though you're just arguing about the cost of batteries, not a certain "type" of power. (wh

> Wrong type of power. I don't think you explained this. It seems as though you're just arguing about the cost of batteries, not a certain "type" of power. (what types of power are there, anyways? I only know of one: electricity. There are many different ways to generate it though..)

nitrogen 16y ago
Batteries don't actually store electricity. They convert electrical energy into chemical energy (and vice versa). I believe the "wrong type of power" referred to above was electrical vs. thermal energy, as well as delivery at the wrong time.
asharp 16y ago
The power for a particular grid generally has two components, that which is always on and that which fluctuates through the day. To give you an example, an aluminum smelter will always use a fixed (and very large) quantity of electricity, day or night, rain or shine. As it is impractical to store electricity anywhere near the scale required to power these types of buildings, you need a power plant that can provide cheaply a continuous supply of power. These are known as your base load power plants. To show you that the storage of large quantities of is impractical by example, think of the last time you visited a data center, and remember the rows upon rows of of UPS batteries required to run one datacenter for a few minutes. It stands to reason that enough batteries to power the datacenter for an extended period of time (ie. days), would be utterly impractical. This is why datacenters have generators, ie. the batteries can't power the datanceter indefinitely and when the batteries run out, it needs to produce the power to power the datacenter. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_load_power_plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_load_power_plant
- artsrc 16y ago
  Aluminium smelters might be better placed somewhere with abundant power from sources like Hydro or Geothermal sources. Or you could mine New York garbage and make diesel out of that.

nitrogen 16y ago

Batteries don't actually store electricity. They convert electrical energy into chemical energy (and vice versa). I believe the "wrong type of power" referred to above was electrical vs. thermal energy, as well as delivery at the wrong time.

asharp 16y ago

The power for a particular grid generally has two components, that which is always on and that which fluctuates through the day. To give you an example, an aluminum smelter will always use a fixed (and very large) quantity of electricity, day or night, rain or shine. As it is impractical to store electricity anywhere near the scale required to power these types of buildings, you need a power plant that can provide cheaply a continuous supply of power. These are known as your base load power plants. To show you that the storage of large quantities of is impractical by example, think of the last time you visited a data center, and remember the rows upon rows of of UPS batteries required to run one datacenter for a few minutes. It stands to reason that enough batteries to power the datacenter for an extended period of time (ie. days), would be utterly impractical. This is why datacenters have generators, ie. the batteries can't power the datanceter indefinitely and when the batteries run out, it needs to produce the power to power the datacenter. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_load_power_plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_load_power_plant

artsrc 16y ago
Aluminium smelters might be better placed somewhere with abundant power from sources like Hydro or Geothermal sources. Or you could mine New York garbage and make diesel out of that.