Re:From liquid air to supercapacitors, energy storage is poi...
by Retric on Saturday February 06, 2016 @11:38AM
(#11048383)
You don't need to replace the grid, just add more capacity.
The economics for ~100% up-time only work out when utility's are regulated to act that way. That means spare capacity and backups for your backups. As such I feel a few Peaker plants are actually a good idea. They should not be turned on every day and should be able to pick up the stack when unexpected things happen.
In terms of hydro, we can build them to store ~12 hours worth of US electricity demand. Past that the geography still works just fine, but excess production becomes cheaper than excess storage.
PS: Don't forget we already use pumped hydro. It's just a maximization problem where cost of excess capacity vs. extra storage.
The economics for ~100% up-time only work out when utility's are regulated to act that way. That means spare capacity and backups for your backups. As such I feel a few Peaker plants are actually a good idea. They should not be turned on every day and should be able to pick up the stack when unexpected things happen.
In terms of hydro, we can build them to store ~12 hours worth of US electricity demand. Past that the geography still works just fine, but excess production becomes cheaper than excess storage.
PS: Don't forget we already use pumped hydro. It's just a maximization problem where cost of excess capacity vs. extra storage.