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Where are you going to build a 1GW solar installation with multiple days of storage capacity in the northeast? long transmission lines significantly reduce eff
by RayVR 2y ago
Where are you going to build a 1GW solar installation with multiple days of storage capacity in the northeast?
long transmission lines significantly reduce efficiency and add massive costs as well as creating easy targets for terrorism.
- pydry 2y agoFirstly, we should probably not start by building a mathematical renewable energy model that presumes wind energy doesn't exist. Storing solar energy for use while the wind is blowing hard is a bit pointless and vice versa. You don't store energy from solar on a sunny winter day to use at midnight when the wind is blowing hardest and consumption is lowest. Your store energy to use on those rarer hours when it is neither sunny nor windy and when consumption exceeds the production of both. This can be done cost effectively and at scale in two ways - 1) by pushing water uphill for short term storage and 2) by manufacturing hydrogen and storing it underground for longer term storage. So, you combine overproduced solar, wind, pumping water uphill and electrolyzing and storing hydrogen to match demand with supply. Solar and wind and their transmission are distributed. This makes them poor terrorism targets. A nuclear plant, on the other hand, is a great target for terrorists.