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> but it does nothing for the lows, the aluminium can't give back the electricity Actually, it seems they might be doing precisely that. See the information i

by audunw 12y ago

> but it does nothing for the lows, the aluminium can't give back the electricity Actually, it seems they might be doing precisely that. See the information in the other comments. It's hard to say for sure, even the primary sources seem fuzzy. But this graphic seems to indicate that they are indeed extracting electric energy from the molten aluminum: http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2014-11-26/tech_aluminumgraphic49_630.jpg http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2014-11-26/tech_aluminumgraphic49_... This presentation also shows the energy arrow pointing from the aluminum plant to the consumer: http://www.innovationsforum-energiewende.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Thomas-Flesch-Trimet.pdf http://www.innovationsforum-energiewende.de/wp-content/uploa... The most confusing thing about all of this is that they say that they only adjust their own power consumption by +/- 25%, which seems to contradict the statement that they're giving energy back. But as far as I can understand, this +/-25% is the long term average. Of course they need to consume a positive net amount of energy during the day to keep the plant running. But it seems that they are able to pump energy back into the grid for a short amount of time, which would be during the hours when solar/wind power is at a minimum.

graycat 12y ago
Maybe they are just giving back the energy to the grid in two respects, (1) energy they contracted for today they do not consume but sell back to the grid and (2) the energy was to come via the grid to them but, in not consuming that energy, the energy flows to homes, etc. instead and, thus, at least is redirected in the grud or, if you will, flows from the aluminum plant to the homes. At one point, they do say virtual. The losses involved are from some somewhat inefficient use of the grid and, there, losses flowing the energy through the grid.

by audunw 12y ago

graycat 12y ago

Maybe they are just giving back the energy to the grid in two respects, (1) energy they contracted for today they do not consume but sell back to the grid and (2) the energy was to come via the grid to them but, in not consuming that energy, the energy flows to homes, etc. instead and, thus, at least is redirected in the grud or, if you will, flows from the aluminum plant to the homes. At one point, they do say virtual. The losses involved are from some somewhat inefficient use of the grid and, there, losses flowing the energy through the grid.