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Solar: purchase panel and leave it in an incline for 15 years. If you have net metering you don't need to even think about storage. Wave: develop massive steel

Solar: purchase panel and leave it in an incline for 15 years. If you have net metering you don't need to even think about storage. Wave: develop massive steel structures in the ocean and transmit power to land with low power density. It's telling that, given the possibility to pick anywhere to develop wave power (even at the most convenient locations) the tech has barely any projects.

jacquesm 12y ago
The tech has had many projects, but none of them made it in the longer term.
dredmorbius 12y ago
At some point someone has to consider storage (or alternative provisioning, or dispatchable load) for solar-backed grid. Even if it's not the homeowner with panels on their own roof.
- alexvoda 12y ago
  Theoretically with solar panels you could have a round-the-clock, round-the-globe balanced network requiring no storage. It would be a network with the same capacity of panels on each meridian. Of course this is not very practical.
  - msandford 12y ago
    Not only not very practical but it would require entirely new transmission technologies: the maximum practical length of a 60Hz transmission line is only a few thousand miles. To go from the bright side to the dark side of the earth is worst-case 12,000 miles so new tech would be needed, or you'd just have to suffer 30% (or more) transmission line loss.
- Intermernet 12y ago
  This is where I'm hoping the combo of electric cars and solar will pay off. The car can provide a local buffer when the family is at home during the night, but isn't needed when the sun is shining. I think the missing piece of this puzzle can hopefully be filled by something like Ambri's (previously LMBC) liquid metal battery tech [1]. A shipping container or two per suburban block, or urban building should be able to provide enough buffer, and then the load is sort-of evenly distributed, and hopefully makes the power management of the grid a little bit simpler as a side effect. [1]: http://www.ambri.com/technology/ http://www.ambri.com/technology/

jacquesm 12y ago

The tech has had many projects, but none of them made it in the longer term.

dredmorbius 12y ago

At some point someone has to consider storage (or alternative provisioning, or dispatchable load) for solar-backed grid. Even if it's not the homeowner with panels on their own roof.

alexvoda 12y ago
Theoretically with solar panels you could have a round-the-clock, round-the-globe balanced network requiring no storage. It would be a network with the same capacity of panels on each meridian. Of course this is not very practical.
- msandford 12y ago
  Not only not very practical but it would require entirely new transmission technologies: the maximum practical length of a 60Hz transmission line is only a few thousand miles. To go from the bright side to the dark side of the earth is worst-case 12,000 miles so new tech would be needed, or you'd just have to suffer 30% (or more) transmission line loss.
Intermernet 12y ago
This is where I'm hoping the combo of electric cars and solar will pay off. The car can provide a local buffer when the family is at home during the night, but isn't needed when the sun is shining. I think the missing piece of this puzzle can hopefully be filled by something like Ambri's (previously LMBC) liquid metal battery tech [1]. A shipping container or two per suburban block, or urban building should be able to provide enough buffer, and then the load is sort-of evenly distributed, and hopefully makes the power management of the grid a little bit simpler as a side effect. [1]: http://www.ambri.com/technology/ http://www.ambri.com/technology/