4 ms·

The efficiency downside doesn't even appear to be a downside. We already have solar excess power when we don't need it. If you can store that power and store

• ncmncm 4y ago
  Right, efficiency will not end up mattering much. For the first 4 hours, 80% is fine. Beyond that, 50% round-trip is fine. Other numbers matter more. But we don't need any particular storage tech, or even all the eventual winners in aggregate, to pan out quickly. There is no need for storage that there is not enough renewable generating capacity to charge up. After enough renewable capacity has been built out, the winners will be known, and storage prices will be much, much lower. What we do need is a hell of a lot more money put into renewable generating capacity. It is being built out at an impressively high rate, but not high enough to forestall climate catastrophe. After enough generation and storage is built out, we will need to start outlawing carbon exhaust and building out carbon capture. But those cannot happen yet. Carbon capture, in particular, is an overwhelmingly worse use of money than installing renewable generating capacity to displace carbon exhaust. And we can't force most current polluters to stop without a replacement already in hand for them to switch to. But factories to make storage and capture equipment of all kinds need to be built now, because that takes a long time, and cannot be rushed, and we will need a very great deal of both. If that means some of the factories will be for eventual losers, so be it.
  • jonahbenton 4y ago
    Really smart distillation, thank you.