4 ms·

Switzerland’s 20M kWh ‘water battery’ is now operational

43 points by cwwc 4y ago

nisa 4y ago
900MW power and 20GWh capacity. Looks like Switzerland consumes around 60TWh yearly. Naively divided by 365 days thats 164GWh daily power consumption, again naively devided by 24 hours it's around 7GWh per hour. Maximum output is 900MW so 0.9GW. This is vastly off because demand is probably very uneven distributed but so is availability of renewables - see also here for germany: https://energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?stacking=stacked_absolute_area https://energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?stacking=s... - but I wanted to get an idea how big this is. Pretty impressive. Might be enough to allow the surrounding area to run on 100% renewables. Not sure how realistic it is to build another five to ten of these but it doesn't look like it's impossible and would probably be enough to be fully self-sustained most of the time.
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  This adds to the existing 4.49GW power capacity Switzerland already had (left panel, hydro storage label): https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/CH?wind=false&solar=false https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/CH?wind=false&solar=fals... Switzerland relies primarily on nuclear, hydro, and imports (especially from Germany), although I imagine this would enable the storage of cheap renewable imports (from France and Austria, vs dirty coal generation in Germany) that might otherwise be curtailed, as well as cleaner exports to Northern Italy ("IT-NO").
aaron695 4y ago
BonoboIO 4y ago
Calling this a „water battery“ is just the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Just a clickbait title and a pretty bad one too. They are created since the 19 hundreds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...
- jbaber 4y ago
  That's exactly what I expected a water battery to be. I don't think it's clickbait to call something storing energy mechanically a battery. I think the scare quotes are even there to stop you thinking it's a chemical battery that's somehow water based.
- perilunar 4y ago
  The word 'battery' has a broader and more nuanced meaning than you seem to think; I would also not call this a battery, but only because it is a single facility. I would however call a two of more of them a battery.
- ncmncm 4y ago
  "Water battery" is a thing people can understand without getting into the mechanics of how it stores the energy.
up2isomorphism 4y ago
Water battery，can I claim I have invented horse-powered car?

43 points by cwwc 4y ago

nisa 4y ago

900MW power and 20GWh capacity. Looks like Switzerland consumes around 60TWh yearly. Naively divided by 365 days thats 164GWh daily power consumption, again naively devided by 24 hours it's around 7GWh per hour. Maximum output is 900MW so 0.9GW. This is vastly off because demand is probably very uneven distributed but so is availability of renewables - see also here for germany: https://energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?stacking=stacked_absolute_area https://energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?stacking=s... - but I wanted to get an idea how big this is. Pretty impressive. Might be enough to allow the surrounding area to run on 100% renewables. Not sure how realistic it is to build another five to ten of these but it doesn't look like it's impossible and would probably be enough to be fully self-sustained most of the time.

toomuchtodo 4y ago
This adds to the existing 4.49GW power capacity Switzerland already had (left panel, hydro storage label): https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/CH?wind=false&solar=false https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/CH?wind=false&solar=fals... Switzerland relies primarily on nuclear, hydro, and imports (especially from Germany), although I imagine this would enable the storage of cheap renewable imports (from France and Austria, vs dirty coal generation in Germany) that might otherwise be curtailed, as well as cleaner exports to Northern Italy ("IT-NO").

aaron695 4y ago

BonoboIO 4y ago

Calling this a „water battery“ is just the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Just a clickbait title and a pretty bad one too. They are created since the 19 hundreds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...

jbaber 4y ago
That's exactly what I expected a water battery to be. I don't think it's clickbait to call something storing energy mechanically a battery. I think the scare quotes are even there to stop you thinking it's a chemical battery that's somehow water based.
perilunar 4y ago
The word 'battery' has a broader and more nuanced meaning than you seem to think; I would also not call this a battery, but only because it is a single facility. I would however call a two of more of them a battery.
ncmncm 4y ago
"Water battery" is a thing people can understand without getting into the mechanics of how it stores the energy.

up2isomorphism 4y ago

Water battery，can I claim I have invented horse-powered car?