Much ado about nothing. Each and every energy storage gimmick adds high complexity and fragility to an already naturally complex system. When you write that cash is King you are misleading. Cash or perceived cost is the market assessment of risk, feasibility and return on investment. Whether you like markets or not they are a reasonably sound way of gauging those parameters. They act like a litmus test for proposed solutions, except when subsidies stand in the way which skews the whole thing. The “cash is king” line kind of shifts the reality of physical impossibility (high energy density chemical batteries) or nonsense (green hydrogen) to blame on the shoulders of so many Scrooges. It doesn’t help.
VRE will have a very difficult time providing abundant, reliable and affordable electricity for the entire world. The problems of grid inertia, intermittency and scale will be very challenging for this world of wind, water, solar and batteries to overcome. It will result in trillions of dollars spent on the wrong infrastructure.
What do you think of sand batteries and the whole genre of thermal bricks technology? Yes if you convert the heat to electricity, the round trip efficiency falls dramatically. But about half of all energy demand is in the form of heat so the conversion can probably be avoided.
There's certainly niche potential, but just as you say it's probably best when used directly for process or district heating or else as a thermal battery at the point of heat generation (like in concentrated solar). That way you avoid one or more electrical generation loops and associated efficiency loss.
Much ado about nothing. Each and every energy storage gimmick adds high complexity and fragility to an already naturally complex system. When you write that cash is King you are misleading. Cash or perceived cost is the market assessment of risk, feasibility and return on investment. Whether you like markets or not they are a reasonably sound way of gauging those parameters. They act like a litmus test for proposed solutions, except when subsidies stand in the way which skews the whole thing. The “cash is king” line kind of shifts the reality of physical impossibility (high energy density chemical batteries) or nonsense (green hydrogen) to blame on the shoulders of so many Scrooges. It doesn’t help.
I actually used that line, in my article about fun technologies, because it sounded catchy. No need to overthink it, I'm not that complex. 😉
VRE will have a very difficult time providing abundant, reliable and affordable electricity for the entire world. The problems of grid inertia, intermittency and scale will be very challenging for this world of wind, water, solar and batteries to overcome. It will result in trillions of dollars spent on the wrong infrastructure.
N2N Natural gas to nuclear
Robert Bryce
To be honest, I agree wholeheartedly.
What do you think of sand batteries and the whole genre of thermal bricks technology? Yes if you convert the heat to electricity, the round trip efficiency falls dramatically. But about half of all energy demand is in the form of heat so the conversion can probably be avoided.
There's certainly niche potential, but just as you say it's probably best when used directly for process or district heating or else as a thermal battery at the point of heat generation (like in concentrated solar). That way you avoid one or more electrical generation loops and associated efficiency loss.