I’m skeptical that energy storage is really a solution at a large scale, either
Different type of grids, storage, good load balancing and incentives to produce then are actually good. Plus different kinds of mobility.
Via grid you can transport electricity from the East coast nearly to the West coast competitively even today. This means you are suddenly talking about 10 hours for LA, PLUS 3 hours for electricity generated in NYC.
Honestly talking about solar electricity availability between 4 to 17 o'clock LA time in deepest winter doesn't sound half bad. Esp. if you compare it to 3 to 20 o'clock in LA during summer time. I argue that no one can sensible tell me those time spans aren't wide enough to produce in them.
Furthermore if we go and look at wind generation we see that this can complement the times of high demand or low solar very well. With a super grid that also taps into water, hydroelectric and geothermic electricity and energy you are suddenly at no hour in which not a good amount of clean energy is created. Even with wind you reduce the time in which there is no significant electricity output in the analysis of only PV and wind into a range that can be expressed in quarters of hours.
However in the US you could also reduce the electricity consumption by up to three quarters to facilitate the change even better (if looked over the next 15 years or so).
In terms of storage, there are always also gravity storage solutions, which will store energy for hours on end, eliminating the wholes in supply curves and enabling nice fitting of supply and demand curves. Naturally this would be combined with other storage types, too. (Btw. I mean gravity storage in a more broad way, pumping water is also gravitational storage).
The mix is the solution to the problem, the problem is the capitalist structure of current electricity and energy consumption, infrastructure and interfacing systems.
Different type of grids, storage, good load balancing and incentives to produce then are actually good. Plus different kinds of mobility.
Via grid you can transport electricity from the East coast nearly to the West coast competitively even today. This means you are suddenly talking about 10 hours for LA, PLUS 3 hours for electricity generated in NYC.
Honestly talking about solar electricity availability between 4 to 17 o'clock LA time in deepest winter doesn't sound half bad. Esp. if you compare it to 3 to 20 o'clock in LA during summer time. I argue that no one can sensible tell me those time spans aren't wide enough to produce in them.
Furthermore if we go and look at wind generation we see that this can complement the times of high demand or low solar very well. With a super grid that also taps into water, hydroelectric and geothermic electricity and energy you are suddenly at no hour in which not a good amount of clean energy is created. Even with wind you reduce the time in which there is no significant electricity output in the analysis of only PV and wind into a range that can be expressed in quarters of hours.
However in the US you could also reduce the electricity consumption by up to three quarters to facilitate the change even better (if looked over the next 15 years or so).
In terms of storage, there are always also gravity storage solutions, which will store energy for hours on end, eliminating the wholes in supply curves and enabling nice fitting of supply and demand curves. Naturally this would be combined with other storage types, too. (Btw. I mean gravity storage in a more broad way, pumping water is also gravitational storage).
The mix is the solution to the problem, the problem is the capitalist structure of current electricity and energy consumption, infrastructure and interfacing systems.
Yeah, gravity storage is the most sensible, close to zero waste, makes neat towers