3 ms·
This argument has been debunked many times. A large enough grid can be based on wind and solar alone, this has been shown for the US in several studies. Storage
by cycomanic 4y ago
This argument has been debunked many times. A large enough grid can be based on wind and solar alone, this has been shown for the US in several studies. Storage however is advantageous because it enables to reduce the amount of overcapacity. The good thing is that the way the electricity market works, is that it provides direct economic incentives to develop storage or basing high electricity demand production industry on currently available electricity.
I'm always amazed that many free market proponents who strongly support market solutions, are so in favour of pushing nuclear which by its nature is very monopolised reliant on subsidies, while good market solutions exist. And I say that as someone who is often sceptical of market solutions.
- HyperSane 4y ago
- tomp 4y agoCan you share some of these studies? I just don’t understand how you can power a grid at night with just wind and solar (no batteries). Even the US isn’t large enough that sun would always be shining somewhere.
- ncmncm 4y agoThink for a moment.
- cycomanic 4y agoHere is one from 2015 [1] (I recall some older and more recent ones, but can't find them right now). IIRC they rely on a number of strategies (not necessarily all in the same story) : 1. A much better interconnected frid 2. Overcapacity in both wind and solar, but particularly wind. 3. Operate e.g. heatpumps during times with lots of energy available to heat or cool coolant. 4. Adjust energy intensive industries to primarily work during times of oversupply. [1] https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2015/EE/C5EE01283J#!divAbstract https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2015/EE/C5EE0...
- tomp 4y agoThanks! I’ve still to read the article (hopefully I can find the full text somewhere) but looks like instead of batteries they’re proposing heat-based energy storage (and radical energy use reduction). Edit: The study you linked to actually just summarises another study (in about as many words as I did above): Jacobson, M.Z., M.A. Delucchi, M.A. Cameron, and B.A. Frew, 2015. A low-cost solution to the grid reliability problem with 100% penetration of intermittent wind, water, and solar for all purposes, Science, in review.
- pfdietz 4y agoAlso look at this web site, which I often reference, that enables you to construct cost-minimized 100% renewable systems to supply baseload power. Some places it's cheaper than in others. Sorry, Eastern Europe and the Baltic. https://model.energy/ https://model.energy/