3 ms·
At 100TW, solar power would use a whooping 0.06% of total solar radiation the Earth receives. The Sun is truly immense. The biggest environmental concern is th
by magnio 4y ago
At 100TW, solar power would use a whooping 0.06% of total solar radiation the Earth receives. The Sun is truly immense.
The biggest environmental concern is the disposing of the batteries when they die, and that should seen solutions soon as solar gets more and more popular.
- a_wild_dandan 4y agoThe overwhelming majority of solar energy storage will likely be in batteries with little need for disposal: giant spinning flywheels, pumping water up high, storing energy in millions of smart thermostat homes by overheating/cooling them during peak hours to reduce demand at other hours, etc.
- WalterBright 4y agoFinally, I see mention of the HVAC "battery" idea I've been flogging for years. Progress! I hope this progresses to using the pile-of-rocks "battery" to store heat/cold in cheap hours and draw on it in expensive hours.
- beefield 4y agoYou might be interested to read about a seasonal thermal storage project in Vojens, Denmark: https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2020/12/16/district-heating-with-seasonal-storage-in-vojens-denmark/ https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2020/12/16/district-heati...
- WalterBright 4y agoLooks like the Danes are very smart!
- wumpus 4y agoIt was popular in the 1950s. Deployed near where you live, even.
- WalterBright 4y agoI know Seattle has an old steam plant to supply the downtown with heat. Never heard of rock storage in the US. I'm interested in a reference. If so, Americans have forgotten all about it, replaced with a desire to do it all with electric batteries.
- nmeagent 4y ago"storing energy in millions of smart thermostat homes by overheating/cooling them during peak hours to reduce demand at other hours" Who's going to go along with this? I suspect millions in the US alone would flip their lids if such an idea were even considered and rightfully so. IMO this would be a great idea if your ultimate goal was to cause smart thermostats to be banished from the home.
- interpenetrate 4y agoI think GP meant overheating/overcooling during off-peak hours? In which case plenty of people in well-insulated buildings go along with this, motivated by lower electricity prices during off-peak hours.
- nmeagent 4y agoI took it as over-heating/cooling during peak electric production time (daylight probably) when power is more available in order to reduce usage during off-peak times. I think it would require compulsion or a large amount of voluntary adoption on the part of the customers to really make much of a difference though, and I doubt that the latter is likely on a meaningful scale (though I could be wrong of course).
- mikeyouse 4y agoIt already happens today with little complaint.. many utilities are offering discounted rates if you agree to let them reduce your consumption on a handful of days per year. One such example; https://consumersenergy-faqs.tendrilinc.com/faqs/what-is-the-peak-power-savers-r-smart-thermostat-program https://consumersenergy-faqs.tendrilinc.com/faqs/what-is-the...
- nmeagent 4y agoEverything's fine as long as it's voluntary. And by voluntary I mean both not compulsory (mandated by some level of government) as well as not normalized to such a degree that virtually every electric provider independently offers no other option. These types of things have a way of worming their way into our everyday lives; I imagine I'm not the only one who is wary of loss of agency from this as well as other similar things as the Overton window is dragged farther and farther away over time.
- ncmncm 4y agoThe fraction of storage in the form of batteries will diminish to near zero, except in cars and garages. That will be a large absolute amount of batteries, but will not grow at anything like the rate generating capacity will.