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>And yes, you will always need backup generation capacity based on gas Always is doing a lot of work in that sentence. I would disagree on the longer term. Dee
by djaychela 3y ago
>And yes, you will always need backup generation capacity based on gas
Always is doing a lot of work in that sentence. I would disagree on the longer term. Deep geothermal for one technology has the capacity to stop us needing gas for such use, and given enough storage, I think the whole system of operation will change.
- XorNot 3y agoIf you have deep geothermal you don't need the solar panels though. It's more cost-effective to build a geothermal plant that you run at full power all the time (because you sell energy by the kWh) rather then trying to cycle it up and down.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mschuster91 3y agoBuild enough geothermal to run base night load, use solar+wind+hydro+battery storage for day demand (and install a ton of electrolyzers to catch the unused electricity in overproduction times), keep a small reserve fleet of biogas/power-to-gas powered plants for emergencies, and get as many of the large consumers (as well as private loads such as ACs, EV chargers) as possible to agree on dynamic load shedding.
- elihu 3y agoThat does make sense; while you could run the geothermal 24/7, you might actually be better off only running it when you need to, since (as I understand it) geothermal can actually use up all the usable heat in an area, which can take a long time to "recharge" through conduction from surrounding rock.
- mschuster91 3y agoFun fact: if you do it right, you can reverse the geothermal heat pump to store energy in the form of heat in the ground in overproduction (i.e. zero or negative electricity rate) times. Heat pumps are pretty awesome.