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Re:Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be by kpil on Wednesday April 26, 2017 @04:51PM (#14206867)
Ah! I was going to write water pump reservoirs or at some price point electrolysis + fuel cells, but making cheap water in the daytime is also good.
Re:Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be by rtx on Wednesday April 26, 2017 @06:49PM (#14207731)
We already have a solution to all our energy needs. Funny to see people come up with outlandish suggestions. I am not sure what I am missing. Because logic points to only one direction.
Re:Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be by kpil on Sunday April 30, 2017 @03:49AM (#14230587)
I don't think there is a viable solution for buffering solar or wind (or nuclear) with renewable sources, unless you happen to have access to a lot of hydro power.

Dynamic remote cut-off of heaters, chargers, and other non-critical consumers is one suggestion, but the equipment cost is probably at least 100 Eur per consumer.

Re:Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be by badosu on Wednesday April 26, 2017 @09:41PM (#14208556)
Well... Outlandish is to think that replacing a huge amount of infrastructure of a type to another is as simple as your sentence makes it look like.
Re:Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be by TheSpiceIsLife on Wednesday April 26, 2017 @10:55PM (#14208834)
By no measure is reverse osmosis or flash distillation of water cheap even if the energy is free.

Imagine building a huge water desalination plant and only running it when there is excess power available on the grid.

I can't see anyone wanting to invest in that, except maybe a financially myopic government, and they tend not to last very long.

Re:Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be by logfromblammo on Thursday April 27, 2017 @03:25PM (#14214028)
If the energy is free, you could just do electrolysis with huge carbon electrodes and immediately ignite the gases, bubbling the exhaust through your freshwater reservoir. You can knock together a setup like that in your own backyard from junkyard parts.

How you do it depends on whether you prioritize capital costs or operating costs.