News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Fusion Foolery by bryanlarsen on Thursday August 17, 2023 @10:09AM (#37161832)
Maybe not now. But prices are reducing at 80% per decade, so it's likely only a few years away from being achievable.
Re:Fusion Foolery by matkoniecz on Thursday August 17, 2023 @10:11AM (#37161861)
Even if solar would cost literally zero, then it does not solve problem that there is no place to fit such megasized pumped storage.

(I am speaking about central Europe or more specifically Poland)

Re:Fusion Foolery by bryanlarsen on Thursday August 17, 2023 @10:41AM (#37162415)
You don't need rivers or even much of a slope for pumped storage. Just water and a few hundred feet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludington_Pumped_Storage_Power...

Re:Fusion Foolery by matkoniecz on Tuesday August 22, 2023 @07:40AM (#37221295)
Hmm, apparently that is more demanding for locations than I thought

Though

> The plant takes advantage of the natural steep sand dune landform of eastern Lake Michigan

Re:Fusion Foolery by pydry on Thursday August 17, 2023 @10:30AM (#37162213)
See the study linked to in my comment above.

In Europe there's some geography known as "the alps" which has been used for years this way by the countries surrounding it.

Poland's environmental record is atrocious on almost every level. I guess the coal lobby must run the government or something because nobody else in Europe that reliant on fuel that dirty. They're a model of how not to do anything right.

Re:Fusion Foolery by matkoniecz on Tuesday August 22, 2023 @07:39AM (#37221277)
> In Europe there's some geography known as "the alps" which has been used for years this way by the countries surrounding it.

Well, that is hardly solution for Poland.

Re:Fusion Foolery by oezi on Thursday August 17, 2023 @02:46PM (#37166209)
This doesn't make any sense. Just use fossils when there are no renewables available. Gas peakers for short term unavailability and others for medium unavailability.
Re:Fusion Foolery by pfdietz on Saturday August 19, 2023 @10:47AM (#37189350)
You don't need pumped hydro. Batteries + hydrogen would work fine in combination, and Europe (and in particular Poland) has enormous underground salt formations that could store millions of gigawatt-hours of hydrogen.