Re:Zeroing in on Decarbonization
by malpighien on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @10:28AM
(#22055015)
I don't think here are available storage solution for renewables and even if there was it would need to be a solution scalable without a risk of running out of resources to make the batteries.
Renewables are great but they work on the shoulders of nuclear/coal which need to pick up the load when there is no sun/wind.
Renewables feel like paying more for getting less with different but not necessarily less pollution issues.
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Storage doesn't have to mean batteries. I'd have thought approaches like pumped hydro [1] could scale pretty well. I vaguely recall a similar story from a couple of years back that basically involved lifting giant concrete blocks.
Re:Zeroing in on Decarbonization
by malpighien on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @02:35PM
(#22057628)
If those solutions were viable at scale then countries like germany or england using lot of renewables and coal (gas or gb) would have been using them already.
They'd only be using them now if they cost less than gas + current carbon taxes.
The question is: at what level of carbon taxes would nuclear displace gas, vs. what level would renewables + storage displace gas. In the US, CO2 taxes would have to exceed $300/ton for new nuclear to displace gas CC baseload, and for intermittent applications the needed tax would be far higher.