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Last time I checked there doesn't exist a commercial operated pumped hydro that buy renewables when supply is high and sell when the weather/season has changed.
by belorn 4y ago
Last time I checked there doesn't exist a commercial operated pumped hydro that buy renewables when supply is high and sell when the weather/season has changed.
I found one plant on the wikipedia list that is at least operated commercially by an private energy company, but they use it to balance their network of fossil fuel power plants when they shut down or start up. During starting/stopping the grid need to stabilize, and doing it themself is cheaper than paying third parties. They stated that in the future when the time is right then they might start to fill the pumped hydro by using renewables, but for now it is power by fossil fuels. Looking at who paid for that storage, it seems to be mostly through subsidies so it was likely a pretty nice deal for them and on paper it look green.
- ncmncm 4y agoObviously until there is enough renewable energy capacity to charge up storage, there will not be storage built to charge with it. Posting "storage isn't built out yet" says nothing informative. Before it's built, it hasn't been built.
- belorn 4y agoIt is future tech, similar to fusion.
- ncmncm 4y agoStorage is trivial freshman physics (lift a weight, pump air to displace water under pressure, pump water uphill) except for batteries, which are also perfectly known physics, with numerous chemistries in mass production, a century of universal use, and working prototypes for more exotic chemistries Thus, literally as different from fusion as is possible to express.