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First few comments have focused on the CO2 compression storage, but that's just one of many technologies the article talks about. It's worth a read. For that ma
by NelsonMinar 4y ago
First few comments have focused on the CO2 compression storage, but that's just one of many technologies the article talks about. It's worth a read. For that matter so is this whole quarterly special section on climate change and energy technology: https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2022-06-25 https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2022-06-25
Pumped hydro is the largest current energy storage system we have deployed. There's a lot of interest in chemical batteries but they're expensive, particularly given how fast the batteries degrade.
- 01100011 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_battery?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_battery?wprov=sfla1 Link says vanadium flow batteries last many years and tens of thousands of cycles. Regeneration sounds fairly simple as well.
- anonuser123456 4y agoVanadium is too expensive/rare to be used at scale unfortunately. But I believe there are a number of workable chemistries for non-vanadium based flow batteries currently in development.
- nradov 4y agoPumped hydro is great but there are limited locations where the geography and geology allows it to work. And there are ecological concerns with building more dams.
- NelsonMinar 4y agoDeveloping new pumped hydro definitely has drawbacks. Slightly encouraging: Switzerland just brought 20GWh of pumped storage online that can generate up to 900 MW. The project took 14 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nant_de_Drance_Hydropower_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nant_de_Drance_Hydropower_Plan...