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When it's the dead of night, no wind, no solar, and the ambient temp. is 85 F here in Texas how are we going to power everyone's AC without an energy storage so

When it's the dead of night, no wind, no solar, and the ambient temp. is 85 F here in Texas how are we going to power everyone's AC without an energy storage solution? Texas isn't really a state known for building hydropower.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
https://www.wartsila.com/energy/towards-100-renewable-energy/atlas-of-100-percent-renewable-energy#/country/US-TX https://www.wartsila.com/energy/towards-100-renewable-energy... Well here's a prediction of how they'd do if they could store a small amount of hydrocarbons made from green energy. 3 hours of battery storage. And if they can't handle the flexible gas, a few more batteries would do it. 12 hours. I mean they could just run a gas plant and capture the carbon as the oil industry has been claiming they will, but that would be cheating wouldn't it. We need that last watt of power to be pure and green or else the massive amount of money saving renewables that Texas has already installed doesn't count.
- sidewndr46 4y ago
  My question was not "how to store power" but how to generate power in the dead of night in Texas with no wind and no power storage.
  - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
    3 hours worth of batteries charged by solar and wind and if that runs out a turbine burning green hydrogen. The link I gave you goes into extreme detail on this and is based on historical data of exactly how often such windless nights occur and what the Texas grid demands overnight. It then works out the cheapest combination of solar/wind/battery/etc.
    - sidewndr46 4y ago
      Sure sounds like we need lots of storage then for those windless nights?
      - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
        > need to come with gigantic storage projects. Was what I responded to. Do you think Texas has anywhere we could store some hydrocarbons? I don't even think that report is optimistic enough, Green Hydrogen production and EVs as demand response and some grid connections will solve the issue cheaper, but I don't want to blow anyones mind, so you've got to meet them halfway with an in-depth accounting of how the vast majority of Texas energy use could be renewable with ease at a low cost.
        sidewndr46 4y ago
        Low cost won't cut it. It needs to be cheaper than existing technologies. Citizens don't vote for candidates with a pitch of "what we're going to do is change policy to require significant capital expenditure that is coming out of your pocket". Failing that if you can find a way to line some politicians pockets in the process, that could work.
        ZeroGravitas 4y ago
        It is cheaper. It is apparently hard to sell this to certain political groups, who get their funding from more expensive sources of energy, but the truth has a way of making itself known when money can be earned and/or saved.
        sidewndr46 4y ago
        So you think the capex of building new types of energy generation & storage is less than the opex of the existing grid generation centered around fossil fuels, like natural gas?
        ZeroGravitas 4y ago

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

https://www.wartsila.com/energy/towards-100-renewable-energy/atlas-of-100-percent-renewable-energy#/country/US-TX https://www.wartsila.com/energy/towards-100-renewable-energy... Well here's a prediction of how they'd do if they could store a small amount of hydrocarbons made from green energy. 3 hours of battery storage. And if they can't handle the flexible gas, a few more batteries would do it. 12 hours. I mean they could just run a gas plant and capture the carbon as the oil industry has been claiming they will, but that would be cheating wouldn't it. We need that last watt of power to be pure and green or else the massive amount of money saving renewables that Texas has already installed doesn't count.

sidewndr46 4y ago
My question was not "how to store power" but how to generate power in the dead of night in Texas with no wind and no power storage.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  3 hours worth of batteries charged by solar and wind and if that runs out a turbine burning green hydrogen. The link I gave you goes into extreme detail on this and is based on historical data of exactly how often such windless nights occur and what the Texas grid demands overnight. It then works out the cheapest combination of solar/wind/battery/etc.
  - sidewndr46 4y ago
    Sure sounds like we need lots of storage then for those windless nights?
    - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
      > need to come with gigantic storage projects. Was what I responded to. Do you think Texas has anywhere we could store some hydrocarbons? I don't even think that report is optimistic enough, Green Hydrogen production and EVs as demand response and some grid connections will solve the issue cheaper, but I don't want to blow anyones mind, so you've got to meet them halfway with an in-depth accounting of how the vast majority of Texas energy use could be renewable with ease at a low cost.
      - sidewndr46 4y ago
        Low cost won't cut it. It needs to be cheaper than existing technologies. Citizens don't vote for candidates with a pitch of "what we're going to do is change policy to require significant capital expenditure that is coming out of your pocket". Failing that if you can find a way to line some politicians pockets in the process, that could work.
        ZeroGravitas 4y ago
        It is cheaper. It is apparently hard to sell this to certain political groups, who get their funding from more expensive sources of energy, but the truth has a way of making itself known when money can be earned and/or saved.
        sidewndr46 4y ago
        So you think the capex of building new types of energy generation & storage is less than the opex of the existing grid generation centered around fossil fuels, like natural gas?
        ZeroGravitas 4y ago