3 ms·
The 4-hour batteries are most profitable right now. They're used both for frequency regulation and price arbitrage: buying cheap power like midday solar to disc
by VintageCool 3y ago
The 4-hour batteries are most profitable right now. They're used both for frequency regulation and price arbitrage: buying cheap power like midday solar to discharge at dusk, or cheap wind/nuclear/coal at night to discharge in the morning.
For days/weeks storage -- it's not a problem yet. We already have plenty of natural gas plants in the US. I'm perfectly happy, environmentally, if we have to run natural gas plants two weeks a year but it means that we get to 80 or 90% clean energy a decade or two faster than Plan B.
- danans 3y ago> . I'm perfectly happy, environmentally, if we have to run natural gas plants two weeks a year but it means that we get to 80 or 90% clean energy a decade or two faster than Plan B. Natural gas isn't the only way to avoid plan B (assuming that refers to giving up on controlling global heating). In CA, natural gas peakers emit 60M metric tons of CO2 per year (out of a statewide 420M metric tons), so a significant portion. Much of the non-peaker C02 is also natural gas based. In addition, as more natural gas in baseload gets supplanted by renewable and storage and maybe small modular nuclear, the utilization of natural gas will drop, resulting in that generation becoming stranded assets (similar to what is happening to coal now).