thinkstoomuch wrote:So how big a battery do you need to balance 120 GWH of solar on a daily basis(in the summer)? That is what solar PV supplies to CA ISO supplies in summer. Of course it was only 52 GWH yesterday.
How big of a battery do you need to balance a load that varies from 903,779 to 439,558 MWH on a daily basis over the last 3 years? With a load that varies on an hourly basis between 46,974 MWH and 13,166 MWH? Data for 5 minute interval is also available.
Batteries that make money used for frequency and short term load control. Not to balance a load long term. If you use a battery a few times a year it becomes a economic sink. Instead of using it many times a day.
You don't use batteries for long term, you use it to either store excess while you spin down production or vice versa. This also means you don't have to fiddle with the frequency, and the cost savings comes from less strain on all systems involved. How much do you think it costs NOT having a battery when the load varies? It took 2 years to recoup the cost of the Hornsdale Power Reserve, although it should be said a significant portion of that revenue was due to weather-related damage to transmission lines.
thinkstoomuch wrote:As far as using the power for other things several islands(small grids) in Australia tried that. Found out it was uneconomic. For example Rottnest Island for water. There are others. Things always sound simple until someone tries it. Like when King Island tried using Vanadium flow batteries. Ended up switching to a smaller lead acid and a bunch of resistors. Or El Hierro Island sounded great, worked poorly. What could go wrong overbuild the wind use pumped hydro to balance after all that elevation change.
They are still using diesel. Not as much diesel I will give but not near what was promised, which was 100% renewable.
Nobody has said that one energy-solution is something that fits all needs. Anyone can come up with examples where "solution X" didn't work or worked poorly, and all types of energy-production have drawbacks when they are used on very small grids - like islands.
thinkstoomuch wrote:Just addressing the rest here and there. I have way to much more use of my time than make a post pretty.
Well you are right about media scare mongering. Same applies to battery materials. You use the same with ground water contamination. I just want a light to get to the kitchen When it is dark out.
It's not scare mongering, the USA has 3.8 million abandoned oil-wells and most of them leak one thing or another that's bad for the environment. Making batteries and PV also impacts the environment, from mining to production to recycling, but most of that can be mitigated from the start.
Also, if your argument is 'I just want my lights on, I don't care how', why do you care where the energy comes from?
thinkstoomuch wrote:The original post was about 42 years left. It is over 40 years since I was told by the President of the USA (Nuclear Power Plant management trained so not a dunce, easily bamboozled, yep) no less we were going to run out in 20 years.
T2M
If you are referring to Carter, he actually said that if
nothing changes the US would have an energy-crisis in the mid to late 80's due to demand outstripping supply. Just as the 42 years is an estimate based on current data and that prediction
will hold true if nothing changes, which is why it's smart to forestall it.
thinkstoomuch wrote:Yet I still have gasoline to run my motorcycle. Despite the usage much higher just about every year since then. Not a non sequitur though your reply is.
It's a non sequitur for the simple reason that things have provably changed, if you want to continue using information from the late 70's as an argument, why aren't you complaining about how much it costs to fuel your motorcycle? The world moves on, move with it.
Pumping water around is an inefficient solution but it works. Going 100% renewable isn't really practical with current tech except in some select geographical locations, all we can do is offset production based on fossil-fuel with the goal to go 100% renewable in the future when it becomes technologically and economically viable.