Yes, storage is definitely the key to harnessing intermittent...

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suryo

54 Posts.

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22/02/18

03:42

Post #: 31241218
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Originally posted by acorn ↑

Yep , I understand the energy density of coal and oil . They are fantastic energy sources . That's why , as I posted previously , it's going to take a long time to wean ourselves of fossil fuels .

Don't know why people fuss over wind turbine charts ? We know that the wind doesn't blow all the time . Just as we know the sun isn't up for 24 hours . But , these resources are quite predictible . And , as they are developed they are getting more and more efficient .

But , it still comes back to the storage . That is the key I reckon . You can generate as much as you like from renewables but until you can store it you will always need fossil for backup .
Molten salt does have a big future as does large scale flow batteries in my view . Enviromentally friendly , scaleable , long lasting , can be located anywhere urban or remote .

I still think we will see smallish scale pumped hydro in certain areas . The one they are looking at for Port Augusta seems like it might work . Plenty of elevation , plenty of water and plenty of sun . Be interested to see how that one pans out .

Here's another example of where renewables can be practical .

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-...hium-batteries-big-success-wa-farmers/8954740

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Yes, storage is definitely the key to harnessing intermittent sources and shifting loads, and you are on to something with the use of spare "standing" battery capacity to contribute to this end and reduce the cost.

The problem I see with pumped hydro are the mechanical losses and big $$ involved butI am sure there are some smaller applications where it would be suitable.

Next best thing to storage would be to have a generation system with enough latency to smooth out the bumps. Kind of like a low-pass filter. The obvious one for this would be solar thermal. Can't see how it could be done with wind or PV.

If we can slow down or shift the heat/cool cycles then it should be possible to achieve a fairly stable base load. Don't know exactly what the engineering solution would be but making the collector big enough might be one approach, another could be to heat exchange it into some big thermal mass e.g. underground rock.
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