8 thoughts on “The Weekend Wonk: A Little Known Energy Storage Tech”
I like the idea of off-the-shelf tech, the contained nature of the facility (many siting options), and the plausible 60%(?) efficiency, but I sent it off to my sister (our dad calls her the “Pump Queen”) for skeptical review and assessment of its safety and maintenance. AFAICT, there are no community-toxic components.
The confusing graph ten minutes in illustrates an important drawback in expensive battery schemes (and they are all expensive) such as this. When you use such schemes to cover for hopelessly intermittent wind and solar, you run into increasingly infrequent but longer periods of no wind and sun. In order to cover for the longer periods, you need more of this expensive storage capacity, but since these periods are infrequent, all this expensive storage is hardly ever utilized.
I like the idea of off-the-shelf tech, the contained nature of the facility (many siting options), and the plausible 60%(?) efficiency, but I sent it off to my sister (our dad calls her the “Pump Queen”) for skeptical review and assessment of its safety and maintenance. AFAICT, there are no community-toxic components.
Footprint seems OK at 6,000 km**2 for 2,000,000 gWh
The confusing graph ten minutes in illustrates an important drawback in expensive battery schemes (and they are all expensive) such as this. When you use such schemes to cover for hopelessly intermittent wind and solar, you run into increasingly infrequent but longer periods of no wind and sun. In order to cover for the longer periods, you need more of this expensive storage capacity, but since these periods are infrequent, all this expensive storage is hardly ever utilized.
Depends on the grid geographical area
It may not be as bad for larger interconnected areas, but it’s still true.
I would expect the first such plants to be built where they are most cost-effective.
In any case, grid storage doesn’t have to be the cheapest, just cheaper than peaker-plants.
Comparing batteries to peaker-plants is like comparing glasses of water to faucets.
Not if the energy comes from sunshine because sunshine is biggish, relatively speaking.