3 ms·
This will last less than a day. What to do in the winter? If the answer is "use the grid", then we just kick the can to someone else, who will probably use fos
by noogle 4y ago
This will last less than a day.
What to do in the winter? If the answer is "use the grid", then we just kick the can to someone else, who will probably use fossil fuels to provide the energy. The basic problem remains - solar/wind are intermittent and fluctuating.
- midasuni 4y agoCompressed air has a higher round trip efficiency than storage, and pumped hydro is twice as efficient as compressed air. However until zero kWh is generated from fossil fuels in summer, solar/wind and battery is a massive gain, even if gas is still used for 2 months a year.
- noogle 4y agoBut gas is used also in the summer. And energy is not only electricity - heating is currently done mostly by natural gas, and is often absent from those calculations. Efficiency is irrelevant. The only thing that matter is cost and feasibility. The cost of energy from solar is ~$0.02/kwh and sometimes even $0.00/kwh (when the grid curtails production). Even with 30% efficiency each kwh retrieved from storage will cost a record-low of $0.06/kwh (3-10 times lower than the consumer price). The biggest factor here is the capex and ease-of-use of the equipment. Not the energy input cost.