Much harder than you’d think, though there are some interesting schemes (like huge tanks filled with molten stuff, superconducting rings, giant flywheels). And there’s always a loss with storage.
TBH having a diverse array of power sources (including a little storage) is much better.
Also, batteries in electric cars are unfortunately extremely expensive, and extremely heavy. They’re less efficient than you’d think. Standardization and swappability (and reusing idle batteries for the grid) is a great idea, but even just focusing on the technical aspects, challenging.
TBH the best solutions are boring and supply-side. Or regional.
Random examples: heat pumps instead of heaters! Insulation! Geothermal loops or spacer panels for big buildings! Lightweight cars! All would save a hilarious amount of energy, but are way too dull to trend, heh.
…And probably suppressed by industry interest groups. whistles
But where are the opportunist industries, like a recycling plant[1] that will only run during high insolation hours, set inside multi storey structures, sharing land area with other, lightweight industries?
or a desalination plant, or carbon capture, or H2O to Hydrogen generation ↩︎
Much harder than you’d think, though there are some interesting schemes (like huge tanks filled with molten stuff, superconducting rings, giant flywheels). And there’s always a loss with storage.
TBH having a diverse array of power sources (including a little storage) is much better.
Also, batteries in electric cars are unfortunately extremely expensive, and extremely heavy. They’re less efficient than you’d think. Standardization and swappability (and reusing idle batteries for the grid) is a great idea, but even just focusing on the technical aspects, challenging.
interesting! ya this is a whole world I know very little about but it seems very relevant these days.
TBH the best solutions are boring and supply-side. Or regional.
Random examples: heat pumps instead of heaters! Insulation! Geothermal loops or spacer panels for big buildings! Lightweight cars! All would save a hilarious amount of energy, but are way too dull to trend, heh.
…And probably suppressed by industry interest groups. whistles
But where are the opportunist industries, like a recycling plant[1] that will only run during high insolation hours, set inside multi storey structures, sharing land area with other, lightweight industries?
or a desalination plant, or carbon capture, or H2O to Hydrogen generation ↩︎