The power (electricity) thread!

[Skatastrophy]

So much for your rugged mountain man image.

Rocky pic, along with article

https://boingboing.net/2021/08/13/real-hermit-descends-from-remote-mountain-cave-for-covid-19-vaccine.html

[MU82]

These batteries could harness the wind and sun to replace coal and gas

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2024/flow-batteries-renewable-energy-storage/?

SAPPORO, Japan — Ocean winds whip across the beaches, hillsides and sprawling plains of Hokkaido. There's enough wind energy here for Japan's northernmost island to power itself and export clean electricity to the rest of the country.

But Hokkaido can't harness all of that power unless it has a way to store energy when breezes are blowing and use it later when the gusts die down.

So, the island is turning to a new generation of batteries designed to stockpile massive amounts of energy — a critical step toward replacing power plants fueled by coal, gas and oil, which create a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Hokkaido is facing a problem that is starting to confront power grids around the world. For the past 150 years, utilities have stored energy in piles of coal or tanks of gas that can be burned on demand. But as countries switch from fossil fuels to clean energy, they need a new kind of backup system that can deliver power whenever someone flips a light switch, not just when the sun shines or the wind blows.

"Most utilities are definitely recognizing that if they're adding renewables, they have to add storage," said Vanessa Witte, a senior analyst at the energy data and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie.

After decades of development, the world has figured out how to make wind turbines and solar panels cheaply and at massive scale. They're starting to make a dent in energy production, accounting for 15 percent of electricity globally, according to the International Energy Agency. But now, a few of the regions that have adopted wind and solar most aggressively are finding some of that energy goes to waste because they can't store it.

[rocky_warrior]

Non-paywall version... (And since MU82's post doesn't mention it, they are "flow batteries")

https://www.yahoo.com/news/batteries-could-harness-wind-sun-172548718.html

[Scoop Snoop]

The article that MU posted focused on storing power. Before our electric co op set up their current program of being able to restore power quickly, we often relied upon our generator for quite a while until the lines were back up. The generator was a perfect example of wasted power. Whether or not we used all that it generated (we didn't), the cost was there, and compared to our co op's rate, it was very expensive electricity.

[rocky_warrior]

Yeah, battery storage HAS to be part of the utility plan - not to mention it's cheap relatively.

I've finally got my solar and powerwall system running, and except for some parasitic losses from the powerwall, it's efficient at just being ready should power go out.  I've only had a quick 5 min outage since it was installed, but it switched over and back seamlessly.  Mine is setup as a whole house backup though, so I do need to be careful about loads when power is out.  The 11.5kW inverter will handle my whole house, but with only 13.5kWh of battery power, it *could* drain quickly.

Another nice feature (when your not relying on it for backup), is that it allows for time-shifting power user.  i.e. - it will charge during the day, and you can set it to discharge in the evening instead of using power from the grid at peak prices.