4 ms·
Re solar PV, the problem of the sun not shining is just a bigger-scale variant of load balancing, which has been addressed successfully before. The English grid
by comicjk 15y ago
Re solar PV, the problem of the sun not shining is just a bigger-scale variant of load balancing, which has been addressed successfully before. The English grid does it with pumped hydro storage in this mountain in Wales: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station
- Caerus 15y agoTrue, but the problem is many, many orders of magnitude larger. Looking at US numbers only, we would need to figure a way to store 51.69 TWh and supply over an 18 hour period. They are storing 233 MWh and distributing over 5 minutes. For a pumping station, that works out to 379.4 cubic kilometers of water lifted 50 meters in the air. For comparison, that is 20 times the volume of the Great Salt Lake. About the volume of Lake Erie once inefficiencies are factored in. I also ran the numbers a while back in a renewable energy class for lead acid batteries. That would require something like the entire lead production of the world for several years, just to handle the US.
- semanticist 15y agoYou mean 'the British grid', since if the hydro plant is in Wales it is by definition not English. This is kinda like referring to a project in Texas as Mexican.
- chc 15y agoMore like referring to the USSR as "Russia."