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A fully decarbonized grid's ability to build renewables is, in fact, not at all determined by the availability of (watershed) hydroelectricity. In particular,
by moloch-hai 4y ago
A fully decarbonized grid's ability to build renewables is, in fact, not at all determined by the availability of (watershed) hydroelectricity.
In particular, hydro storage can be built in hundreds of times as many places as watershed hydro generation. And, there are numerous other practical storage methods.
Ready combined-cycle gas generation capacity is more important, most places. Those will be incrementally converted to consume imported synthetic ammonia.
- Manuel_D 4y ago> Ready combined-cycle gas generation capacity is more important, most places. Those will be incrementally converted to consume imported synthetic ammonia. Synthetic ammonia that comes from where? Ammonia is currently produced by steam reformation, which emits CO2. You're talking about electrolyzing water to produce hydrogen, and using renewable energy to carry out the Haber process. Nobody is using this strategy of energy storage, so it's priceless in a very literal sense: there is no way to estimate how much such a system would cost. I'd take an expensive solution over a priceless solution any day.
- moloch-hai 4y agoSynthetic ammonia will come from electric synthetic ammonia production plants. A few production-scale plants are already under construction, but of course hundreds more will be needed. Ammonia will not be, primarily, a storage medium, but a transportation medium and fuel, although it stores well under light pressure. Any tropical country can put up a solar farm and begin exporting ammonia to places less blessed with reliable sunshine -- for fertilizer, at first. Insisting technologies that people are already spending billions of dollars on building out were not first shown to be viable is a peculiar position to take.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoEfficiency of producing Ammonia is 15%? How is this ever going to be practical?
- moloch-hai 4y agoWhen marginal cost of energy is zero, other things than energy efficiency become more important. But where is this 15% figure coming from?
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoYou are assuming a very ideal scenario, which is dangerous. Even so, do you have another figure? This is a complex molecule, it is naturally inefficient to produce compared to hydrogen, which is below 50%.
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