Comment on An Australian power grid larger than the UK is being dismantled as remote farmers go solar
sj_zero 2 years ago
Considering the total incompetence I've heard of from the regulated grid in Australia, that makes a lot of sense to me. Might as well disconnect from the grid and deal with the problem on your own since otherwise you'd be paying more money on less power.
The flipside of that, the part that they don't tell you, is how much diesel fuel will be burned in inefficient micro scale generators when the renewables can't keep up. We're going back to Edison era technology in that regard.
RoboGroMo@slrpnk.net 1 year ago
i'm hoping that we see some development of smaller scale energy storage systems that help move away from generators, even something like a screw pump so it's rate can be varied to use excess power generation to lift water into a higher reservoir - it could them be used for irrigation without the need for other power and converted back into electricity as required in an emergency. Ideal for remote farmers as they'll require water storage anyway and can use the gravity fed irrigation system in normal use (using the same pump power or less used in a conventional system to raise water into the top tank) then have what's essentially free energy (in that it would have been wasted as excess previously) to add additional water for storage (from rain catchment systems or whatever is currently used) plus you even get a little bit of even freer energy if it rains.
It's such a safe, stable and otherwise useful energy storage method that i really think the potential energy in lifted water is such a promising area of development, there are so many pumping methods too - you can even use direct thermal energy to lift steam up into a condenser thus cleaning, sanitising and moving the water all in one.
sj_zero 1 year ago
Hydroelectric is in my opinion where it's practical the best way to handle electricity generation and storage. We know it works because it works all around the world an in some places has for 100 years. It isn't always practical, but often it is, even on a smaller level like for farmers as you said.
One big problem is I think there's more money in failure than success. If you build a hydroelectric dam and your entire region has cheap electricity for generations and is no longer reliant on fossil fuels for home heating and cooling, How are you supposed to skim billions of dollars off the top if that?