How do we deal with balancing the uneven load renewables produce in places where pumped hydro isn't an option for power storage? I.e. lowland areas. Here in the southeastern US, night almost always means no wind as well as the obvious no sun. Chemical batteries, afaik, aren't a sustainable solution ATM.

[–] Blake@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the question. Firstly, most places have a power grid which is far larger than their locality. For example, the southeastern United States is connected to a single big grid which connects every smaller sub-grid east of the Rocky Mountains. This means that a home in Florida can be powered all the way from the Bath County pumped-storage facility in Virginia, the second largest such facility in the US.

Hydroelectricity can also be generated by rivers, which are commonly used in lowland areas, and geothermal is also viable at any time of the day. Biomass is also an option, though it’s the last resort really, although as long as it’s responsibly managed, it can be nearly carbon neutral.

There are also alternatives to pumped storage, lots of them. Compressed air, thermal storage, and hydrogen are a few examples just off the top of my head, though I’m sure there are many more. Pumped storage is just very efficient and cheap, so if we can plausibly do it, it should be the first choice. And if it can’t be done somewhere, then we should connect that place to somewhere which can!

[–] Chapo0114@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hydroelectricity

Destroys aquaculture. TVA has absolutely killed those rivers, and there is no way to sugar coat that.

Geothermal can't be used in most places (but should absolutely be used where it can be)

Biomass is just burning shit all over again (thought that was the point of not burning coal).

I'm also skeptical of the pivot from using renewables as a decentralized solution and then touting a massive grid which requires lots of infrastructure. Unless your problem with centralization is targetability by bombing.

I've not heard much about compressed air as an energy storage medium, or thermal storage besides from using solar arrays to reflect light and melt a metal core (like Gemasolar which is another centralized solution), but I've heard nothing good about hydrogen except from breathless techbro types.

Meanwhile Nuclear is a mature technology now, absolutely a less dangerous solution than coal (even without looking a climate change knock-on effects, just looking at the effects coal dust has on populations near coal-fired plants), and can be used to meet the base-load of a local grid with various renewable solutions used to meet peak load demands.

[–] Blake@feddit.uk 0 points 1 year ago

If I knew you were just gonna try to pick holes I wouldn’t have been so nice to you. Ah well, we live and learn!

I don’t believe you and couldn’t find anything online. Post a source for your claim that run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plants operated by TVA have reduced aquatic life.
No, wrong. Geothermal can be built pretty much anywhere with the use of EGS.
Burning shit grown exclusively for the purpose of doing so. Plants breathe carbon dioxide in and breathe out oxygen. When we burn them, some of the carbon they breathed in is released. Properly managed biomass is essentially carbon neutral.

Coal is completely different - it’s carbon that has been sequestered for a really long time that we’re extracting. Biomass is recently captured carbon being re-released. I agree it’s not the ideal solution though. Good thing my comment contained about a dozen other ideas huh?

Decentralised doesn’t mean disparate. The internet is a decentralised network of computers. It also connects fucking billions of them all together into one big grid. The more interconnected the grid is, the more resilient it becomes. I have explained before the benefits of decentralisation: less risk from natural disaster, accidents, intentional acts of sabotage or manipulation, etc.
Clearly if YOU, the internet’s most informed commenter, haven’t heard of it, then it must be worthless. Completely glossing over the fact that you probably have thermal power storage in your home right now in the form of a hot water tank, yes, molten salt solar is one form of thermal storage. Again, something like 98% of all electrical storage is pumped storage. I just shared some other options with you because I thought you were a cool guy. Wont make that mistake again don’t worry!

And what do you mean that you “haven’t heard anything good about hydrogen”? What an absolutely absurd statement. Hydrogen is an element. It has a very high energy density per kg. It can be used to store energy. Electrolysis of water produces hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. Then the hydrogen gas is captured, compressed and stored. Later, the hydrogen can be oxidised to produce energy and water. It’s an entirely clean cycle, as long as the electricity used to generate hydrogen is also clean. It’s nowhere near as efficient as pumped storage but it’s another option. We should 100% be transitioning to using hydrogen for cars instead of lithium ion batteries, it’s going to be much much more environmentally friendly, long term.

Nuclear is more expensive, more dangerous, more environmentally damaging and slower to provision than renewables. Why the fuck are you comparing it to coal? I have never suggested even once that we should invest in fossil fuels in any way whatsoever.