2 ms·

My understanding is that photovoltaic panels are ultimately cheaper to operate. Cost is driving a lot of decisions in this space. Less moving parts, no plumbing

My understanding is that photovoltaic panels are ultimately cheaper to operate. Cost is driving a lot of decisions in this space. Less moving parts, no plumbing, etc. So, as a means for generating electricity, that just looks like one is clearly better than the other. For storage, there are many other ways to store energy and that too is driven by cost. Dumping heat into salts, basalt, etc. are all attractive propositions from a material cost point of view. Converting heat back into energy is somewhat inefficient however. But these systems are great for providing long term energy storage for e.g. heating systems needed in the winter. Of course, winters in Nevada are pretty short and warm. I visited Las Vegas in the middle of the winter once. It was very warm. Reno is a bit colder but also has short winters.

deepdriver 4y ago
>But these systems are great for providing long term energy storage for e.g. heating systems needed in the winter. Yep, that's how I first heard of it. Finnish company providing sand-based thermal energy storage: https://newatlas.com/energy/sand-battery-polar-night/ https://newatlas.com/energy/sand-battery-polar-night/ For electric generation, there's this Danish company whose system integrates turbines run off reheated air: https://www.stiesdal.com/storage/the-gridscale-technology-explained/ https://www.stiesdal.com/storage/the-gridscale-technology-ex... They claim to be deploying a 4MW demonstrator unit sometime this year. As I imagine it, a system like this one could charge smaller (in-home) batteries that provide immediate power on demand. As the batteries begin to drain, the turbine has time to spin up. The chemical batteries act as a buffer for turbine downtime and/or response time. Sort of like a Prius hybrid powertrain. The required chemical battery capacity would be much smaller than, say, a grid-scale lithium ion battery bank.

deepdriver 4y ago

>But these systems are great for providing long term energy storage for e.g. heating systems needed in the winter. Yep, that's how I first heard of it. Finnish company providing sand-based thermal energy storage: https://newatlas.com/energy/sand-battery-polar-night/ https://newatlas.com/energy/sand-battery-polar-night/ For electric generation, there's this Danish company whose system integrates turbines run off reheated air: https://www.stiesdal.com/storage/the-gridscale-technology-explained/ https://www.stiesdal.com/storage/the-gridscale-technology-ex... They claim to be deploying a 4MW demonstrator unit sometime this year. As I imagine it, a system like this one could charge smaller (in-home) batteries that provide immediate power on demand. As the batteries begin to drain, the turbine has time to spin up. The chemical batteries act as a buffer for turbine downtime and/or response time. Sort of like a Prius hybrid powertrain. The required chemical battery capacity would be much smaller than, say, a grid-scale lithium ion battery bank.