3 ms·
That's a good point, I can see how this could be better than battery based storage for night time. But I wonder if wind power coupled with some limited battery
by mataug 5y ago
That's a good point, I can see how this could be better than battery based storage for night time. But I wonder if wind power coupled with some limited battery storage, geo thermal, and newer generation nuclear peaker power plants can solve this problem instead of laying a mega cable under the ocean.
- mapmap 5y ago>nuclear peaker power plants Is that even a thing? Why would one not run the nuclear plant 24/7 after it has been paid for and constructed?
- janmo 5y agoIt is not only about night time but also about inverted seasons. When it is summer in Chile it will be winter in China.
- mataug 5y agoThats fair, but I still think that a 15,000Km undersea cable adds a lot more complexity and cost when compared to diversifying renewable low carbon power generation within Asia Also the cost of laying that cable is going to be baked into the cost power coming from Chile, and this might make it far less economically viable when compared to adding redundant power generation capacity in Asia.
- bryanlarsen 5y ago_Microft linked to a great paper saying that 99.99% reliability can be achieved in 42 different countries using a mix of overprovisioned solar, wind and 3 hours worth of batteries. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26355-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26355-z
- adrianN 5y agoA mix of power sources and some storage can of course solve this problem. The question is whether it is cheaper (or more desirable for other reasons). An infrastructure of a couple of HVDC lines that are vital for countries on different continents has very interesting geopolitical consequences for example. Imagine the bargaining power a country has if it can literally turn off the lights during the night in another country. With fossil fuels it is at least easy to store months worth of energy, but still OPEC is quite powerful.