10 ms·

That's highly dependent on what chemical process you use. Most industrial processes don't like intermittent power.

kwhitefoot 5y ago
With a properly designed electricity grid with interconnects to other grids and using all those idle electric cars as batteries we surely can solve this problem. The wind is always blowing somewhere, the sun is always shining somewhere, and most electric vehicles are idle at night when the sun is not shining and they could be used to smooth out the peaks and troughs. Most private vehicles are idle for more than 90% of the time. There are about 290 million private cars in the US (See https://hedgescompany.com/automotive-market-research-statistics/auto-mailing-lists-and-marketing/ https://hedgescompany.com/automotive-market-research-statist...). If those were all electric with, say 50 kWh batteries they would be able to deliver an instantaneous power of something like 58 TW if the connectors could take it. But even if we assume that they are connected to only 7 kW charging points they could deliver 2 TW instantaneously. They could keep this up for an hour at the cost of losing less than 20% of a full charge. Average US electricity consumption is about 500 GW so vehicle to grid plus an upgraded and properly interconnected grid should be able to solve the problem of intermittent generation. I hope I haven't made a mistake in the arithmetic!
- BizarroLand 5y ago
  Also, we have lots of energy storage options that produce minimal amounts of waste. Flywheels, molten salt, iron air batteries, literally dozens of alternative systems exist that are all viable and variably scalable power grid stabilization systems that can work harmoniously with renewable generation to keep electricity available to the consumer at both the individual and commercial level. It needs a lot of financial and engineering investment to make headway, and these decisions would have to come from government leadership as otherwise there are too many cats to corral to ever make is succeed.

With a properly designed electricity grid with interconnects to other grids and using all those idle electric cars as batteries we surely can solve this problem. The wind is always blowing somewhere, the sun is always shining somewhere, and most electric vehicles are idle at night when the sun is not shining and they could be used to smooth out the peaks and troughs. Most private vehicles are idle for more than 90% of the time. There are about 290 million private cars in the US (See https://hedgescompany.com/automotive-market-research-statistics/auto-mailing-lists-and-marketing/ https://hedgescompany.com/automotive-market-research-statist...). If those were all electric with, say 50 kWh batteries they would be able to deliver an instantaneous power of something like 58 TW if the connectors could take it. But even if we assume that they are connected to only 7 kW charging points they could deliver 2 TW instantaneously. They could keep this up for an hour at the cost of losing less than 20% of a full charge. Average US electricity consumption is about 500 GW so vehicle to grid plus an upgraded and properly interconnected grid should be able to solve the problem of intermittent generation. I hope I haven't made a mistake in the arithmetic!

BizarroLand 5y ago
Also, we have lots of energy storage options that produce minimal amounts of waste. Flywheels, molten salt, iron air batteries, literally dozens of alternative systems exist that are all viable and variably scalable power grid stabilization systems that can work harmoniously with renewable generation to keep electricity available to the consumer at both the individual and commercial level. It needs a lot of financial and engineering investment to make headway, and these decisions would have to come from government leadership as otherwise there are too many cats to corral to ever make is succeed.