Comment on A solar powered website that goes offline when there's no power
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 3 days agoGrid scale batteries are only a solution for transients, if that. Actual energy storage needs to be scalable like pumped storage hydro which accounts for 95% of all storage capacity worldwide.
betanumerus@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Scaling means you buy 2 instead of one.
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
That is literally the opposite definition to scalable. Scalable things don’t require twice the resources for twice the capacity.
Buy two instead of one is exactly the worst case scalability you can have.
95% of the world grid storage capacity is pumped storage hydro and batteries will literally never be able to compete because water is the cheapest energy storage medium we could possibly have at grid scale. North America was the world leader on PSH in the 1970-2000 but now China is eating our lunch and our governments no longer have the ability to start real infrastructure projects because of crony capitalism.
I can’t believe we’re watching China become the world leader in renewables while we pretend like batteries are a smart way of storing GWhs of power because that’s the most profitable solution to the private sector.
betanumerus@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Enjoy your water.