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Yes, solar power has a huge amount of seasonal variation in the UK and the rest of northern Europe. And obviously, batteries on their own won't cut it to deal
by rgmerk 3y ago
Yes, solar power has a huge amount of seasonal variation in the UK and the rest of northern Europe.
And obviously, batteries on their own won't cut it to deal with this seasonal variation.
But northern Europe, particularly the UK, has a lot less solar and a lot more wind in its grids than Spain, California, or Australia, for that very reason.
Beyond that, there are quite a few other current or near-term technologies you can use to deal with the seasonality of supply and demand. First, insulating its houses properly to reduce the winter demand peak. Second, switching to heat pumps is another. Third, expanding biogas production and using it specifically for the winter peak.
In the long term, producing hydrogen in the summer and storing it for the winter seems like the most likely solution for 100 or near-100% renewable grids in northern Europe at this point.
- tomatocracy 3y agoIf you want to use wind as baseload in the UK, you need enough storage to go through a wind drought which lasts for weeks. On top of that, the UK currently largely uses piped gas for space and water heating so unfortunately moving to heat pumps and EVs makes the problem even worse since both increase demand for electricity further (even if they net reduce energy demand/use). I don't think it's unreasonable to conclude that nuclear is likely to be a significantly cheaper solution when factoring in total system costs, especially if you can build a whole series of nuclear plants and benefit from economies of scale.