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What's the plan with all of this capacity? Assuming we dont have anywhere close to the battery capacity to use this effectively at night and on non windy days.
by wonderwonder 3y ago
What's the plan with all of this capacity? Assuming we dont have anywhere close to the battery capacity to use this effectively at night and on non windy days. Are we looking at a future where we run on wind and solar in the day and fossil fuels at night and high capacity days?
- mbgerring 3y agoThat’s a bad assumption, battery technology and deployment are both ramping up and battery capacity will likely massively increase in the coming years.
- ianburrell 3y agoWind and solar are complementary, solar during the day and wind at night. In the short term, wind and solar provide power when they can and make up the difference with natural gas. That is much better than the current system of coal and natural gas. This extends to wind and solar providing all of the normal power. Then can have storage to cover the daily needs. There is no problem turning off wind and solar when not needed, but we will find ways to use the free power. In the long term, we can have so much wind and solar capacity, I have seen 3 times load, to cover nearly all the time. The excess power will be needed for carbon capture and fuel production. For the rare times when renewables aren't enough, can use hydrogen or other generated fuels as backup.
- dynamorando 3y agoYou seem to have some knowledge in this area. I'm curious your thoughts on Enhanced Geothermal? https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/18/fervo-energy-hits-milestone-using-oil-drilling-tech-to-tap-geothermal.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/18/fervo-energy-hits-milestone-...
- Synaesthesia 3y agoGeothermal is great, where it’s available. According to the article you linked it’s still quite expensive, but coming down in price rapidly.