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A comment on Building Ultra Cheap Energy Storage for Solar PV.

Re:Building Ultra Cheap Energy Storage for Solar PV by gaoryrt on Wednesday August 20, 2025 @03:48AM (#44959669)
Why go throught the extra solar -> electricity -> resistive heating -> soil instead of directly doing solar -> heating a metal rod -> soil?

Cutting out the conversion steps should be more efficient.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Building Ultra Cheap Energy Storage for Solar PV by 3eb7988a1663 on Sunday August 24, 2025 @02:52PM (#45006669)
If the electricity is free, efficiency does not matter that much. The capex of the storage system might matter a lot more. In which case, heating up a big mass might be more economically feasible than battery installations.
[ Parent | on HN ]