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Re:California is about to side with PG&E – again – to kill c... by cameldrv on Tuesday May 28, 2024 @06:34PM (#40506325)
It seems like the next major energy invention we need is long-term storage. Batteries have gotten much more cost effective, but you still need to amortize their costs over hundreds of charge-discharge cycles to get a payback. They're too expensive to store summer energy for the winter.

If you had an energy storage technology that could store energy with a very low storage cost, even if it were very inefficient, you could make use of the massive coming excess of summer solar power.

Re:California is about to side with PG&E – again – to kill c... by euroderf on Wednesday May 29, 2024 @12:16AM (#40508403)
hydrogen, methane, ammonia, molten salt, sand battery, ... so many tradeoffs
Re:California is about to side with PG&E – again – to kill c... by shagie on Wednesday May 29, 2024 @12:18AM (#40508415)
https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/pumped-storage-hydropower

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/10/controversial-energy-...

> A controversial energy project in south central Washington is one step closer to breaking ground. A federal commission released its final environmental review for the Goldendale Energy Storage Project — to the consternation of several tribes and environmental groups.

> The project is part of a potential solution to one of the biggest problems for renewable energy development: the variability of wind and solar. As the Northwest transitions off fossil fuels, power will need to be stored for when the sun doesn’t shine, and the wind doesn’t blow.