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None of these have actually been used for grid storage. Heated sand has been used for district heating, but electric generation is more challenging because it r

None of these have actually been used for grid storage. Heated sand has been used for district heating, but electric generation is more challenging because it requires higher temperature gradients. There's plenty of other ideas people are pursing: hydrogen electrolysis, compressed air, giant flywheels, ammonia, I could go on. Why are people exploring all these alternative energy storage methods? Because grid storage is not feasible with current storage options. We're still looking for the silver bullet to solve grid storage. Will these new ideas yield storage at lower cost than the existing systems? Maybe, maybe not. A grid powered by primarily intermittent sources is viable if such a silver bullet is found, but that's a pretty big if to bet the future of the electric grid on. A very realistic outlook for wind and solar is that we saturate peak production, waste a ton of excess electricity, and keep burning fossil fuels because the silver bullet never materializes.

defrost 3y ago
> None of these have actually been used for grid storage. So what? As is clearly implicit to the meanest intellect in my comment above these are alternatives that are being built right now after having already passed pilot testing and now being scaled up for grid storage. > A very realistic outlook for wind and solar is that we overproduce during daytime here in Australia, have sufficient wind through much of the night to tick over, and use the excess to produce green hydrogen, ammonia, methonal, etc to buffer nighttime demand and for use in mining, transport and agriculture.
- Manuel_D 3y ago
  > So what? As is clearly implicit to the meanest intellect in my comment above these are alternatives that are being built right now after having already passed pilot testing and now being scaled up for grid storage. No, they are not. They are still in the prototype stages. Gravity storage is still being prototyped. Heated sand is only being used for district heating. If you've got news about a real production deployment of grid storage using these systems, I'd be eager to read it. > and use the excess to produce green hydrogen, ammonia, methonal [sic], etc to buffer nighttime demand If we find a feasible way of doing these things. These storage schemes are theoretically possible, but as of yet they are not demonstrated to be viable at grid scale. The reason why most of the talk is around batteries is because they're the most viable storage option at the moment. Will one of the systems you listed deliver much better grid scale storage? Maybe, maybe not. If your point is that intermittent sources are viable contingent on an energy storage breakthrough, then yeah I'm in agreement. But it's not exactly wise to bet the future of your electrical grid on a technological breakthrough that may or may not happen.

defrost 3y ago

> None of these have actually been used for grid storage. So what? As is clearly implicit to the meanest intellect in my comment above these are alternatives that are being built right now after having already passed pilot testing and now being scaled up for grid storage. > A very realistic outlook for wind and solar is that we overproduce during daytime here in Australia, have sufficient wind through much of the night to tick over, and use the excess to produce green hydrogen, ammonia, methonal, etc to buffer nighttime demand and for use in mining, transport and agriculture.

Manuel_D 3y ago
> So what? As is clearly implicit to the meanest intellect in my comment above these are alternatives that are being built right now after having already passed pilot testing and now being scaled up for grid storage. No, they are not. They are still in the prototype stages. Gravity storage is still being prototyped. Heated sand is only being used for district heating. If you've got news about a real production deployment of grid storage using these systems, I'd be eager to read it. > and use the excess to produce green hydrogen, ammonia, methonal [sic], etc to buffer nighttime demand If we find a feasible way of doing these things. These storage schemes are theoretically possible, but as of yet they are not demonstrated to be viable at grid scale. The reason why most of the talk is around batteries is because they're the most viable storage option at the moment. Will one of the systems you listed deliver much better grid scale storage? Maybe, maybe not. If your point is that intermittent sources are viable contingent on an energy storage breakthrough, then yeah I'm in agreement. But it's not exactly wise to bet the future of your electrical grid on a technological breakthrough that may or may not happen.