Re:I Choose Optimism
by adrianN on Monday August 22, 2022 @04:56AM
(#32548983)
Solar energy is the cheapest form of energy we have. Storage is a bit more expensive, but judging from the amount of metals the video proposes they want to go all-in on battery storage, whereas most experts I heard from propose to use hydrogen (or methane) as a storage medium, precisely because the amount of resources it needs are much smaller.
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Re:I Choose Optimism
by modo_mario on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @04:09AM
(#32561872)
>whereas most experts I heard from propose to use hydrogen (or methane) as a storage medium
What experts? Power to gas has been really energy inefficient with little sign of improving from what I know. It can't really compete with pumped hydro even where pumped hydro makes less to no sense it seems.
Efficiency (almost) doesn't matter. Cost and scalability matters. Pumped hydro and batteries are wonderfully efficient, but they're a lot more difficult to scale than infrastructure for storing, transporting, and burning a gas.
Re:I Choose Optimism
by disgruntledphd2 on Monday August 22, 2022 @05:45AM
(#32549318)
Hydrogen would also help with re-using all the ICE cars we have (and will continue to have) on the roads.
Definitely not a panacaea, and super-inefficient, but that's OK if we're just using it for storage/transportation.
super-inefficient?
Re:I Choose Optimism
by disgruntledphd2 on Monday August 22, 2022 @10:28AM
(#32551904)
as in it's only worth doing if you have nothing else to do with the energy (like when you have too much wind/sun etc)
That's just the concept of energy storage. And even if we lose a significant fraction it's often not an issue given how cheap solar is.
Re:I Choose Optimism
by disgruntledphd2 on Monday August 22, 2022 @01:25PM
(#32554491)
Sure, but it would be better if we had more efficient methods of doing it.