4 ms·

You can generally solve seasonal shortfalls cheaply by simply adding more solar / wind until you no longer have a seasonal shortfall just a massive surplus in a

• skybrian 4mo ago
  I don’t believe the “cheaply” part. You end up building storage that only gets used for one cycle a year, so the capital cost is very high per watt.
  • Retric 4mo ago
    I think you misunderstood, I am saying 20MW of solar power is less expensive than 1GWh of energy storage. Nothing in my post suggests 1GWh of storage is cheap.
• buzer 4mo ago
  > Near the arctic circle Wind fill the same niche. What do you mean? Long periods of calm weather during cold temperatures is not unheard of in Finland and does cause issues at times due to amount of wind energy that has been built in recent times.
  • Retric 4mo ago
    Long periods of low output isn’t 0 energy output over a ~3 month long winter. Beyond that wind for each location is somewhat seasonal so if you’re doing this for winter energy you pick areas with better wind in winter.
    • buzer 4mo ago
      Not 3 month period, but looking at e.g. capacity factor over 5 day period can be under 3% and even 10 day period can be under 5%. Capacity factor for whole year is around 30% (22TWh produced with 9433MW in 2025, rounded it up since some capacity came online during 2025). That's a lot of extra power or storage.
      • Retric 4mo ago
        We’re optimizing for cost here, nothing else matters. You can always turn off a wind turbine. If you’re proposing seasonal storage as a viable option then cutting total storage needs by 90% (to handle a 10 day lull vs 90 day gap) is inherently cheaper. Hell traditional hydro is well suited for such situations as annual output and storage is limited but nontrivial. Doubling output for 10 days isn’t nearly as problematic as trying to cover a 90 day shortfall.
• _heimdall 4mo ago
  You can't replace batteries with more solar, additional solar only increases the energy produced while the sun is out. That can help on overcast days, or the middle of winter when days are shorter, but you still need battery capacity to run for stretches when there is no sun producing energy. For residential its often recommended to have 3 days of storage capacity + the option for a backup generator. I'm not sure what the recommendation is for industrial projects, but I expect they would still need a backup generator. If they already have to put in a generator to handle the full load of the server farm, and they have cheap local gas, why bother with the solar? At a minimum you have both, but the generator (or power from a contracted gap generator) is a given.
  • Retric 4mo ago
    Nightly storage is cost effective because you use it 365 times a year. Seasonal storage is solving a different problem.
    • _heimdall 4mo ago
      Nightly storage depends on being able to recharge to full capacity every day. That isn't a risk they could possibly accept, they would have to have an alternative source that could sustain when the sun doesn't come out or equipment fails.
      • Retric 4mo ago
        > to full capacity every day. A common misconception you don’t need to hit 100%, you need enough energy to make it either from that day or from prior days. At grid scale daily production is never 0 and it’s never 100%. You can guarantee a surplus all 365 days a year, it’s just a cost vs benefit function, that’s however different from always fully charging your energy storage. If hypothetically the minimum was 99.9% of nighttime needs the odds you cover that gap the next day is extremely high to the point where a little extra storage makes sense vs aiming for 100% every day. So now you’re just trying to optimize something for minimum cost. Utilities do this all the time with traditional generation you have random equipment failures and shifting seasonal demand. Thus they optimize maintenance schedules around seasonal demand etc.