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> Closed loop (off-river) pumped hydro storage has the smallest carbon emissions per unit of storage of all candidates for large-scale energy storage Pumped-st
by openrisk 2y ago
> Closed loop (off-river) pumped hydro storage has the smallest carbon emissions per unit of storage of all candidates for large-scale energy storage
Pumped-storage is a rather special approach as it feels almost like an extension of the natural water cycle.
Reducing the total footprint of the energy system (including all materials required for construction and ongoing maintenance) is an important part of the sustainability puzzle.
Ofcourse once you scale things to the gargantuan energy needs of modern civilization all sorts of minor "side-effects" may become important.
- pluto_modadic 2y agoor, we should spend less electricity on AI, big data, and blockchains.
- Maakuth 2y agoEven if we decided to stop all these and curtail datacenter power usage in other ways, decarbonising is certainly going to require increased electricity generation. Most oil and gas usage will be replaced with electrical alternatives. As the oil and gas burning applications are mostly quite inefficient, luckily we don't need to do 1:1 replacement of the chemical energy of fossil fuels. Still it seems unavoidable that in the future there will be more electricity generation rather than less.