Renewable Energy Storage -- What's Real?

[AntronX]

I think concern over environmental impact of two man made lakes is overblown and ridiculous. But hey, it's crazy California where they are shutting down two perfectly fine nuclear reactors which generate over 4 times clean energy than this proposed facility, because now warm water is a pollutant.

 

[Skotty]

I think this one is in for a long protracted environmental battle... too much potential impact on Joshua Tree National Park, it appears.

From spectacular vistas to the pits: A decades-long public land battle continues in the California desert

That's my concern for pumped hydro. There always seems to be environmental impact from the reservoirs. Power pack style solutions don't seem to face as much opposition. So far there haven't been any reports of too many birds flying into power pack racks and dying.

 

[RubberToe]

I think concern over environmental impact of two man made lakes is overblown and ridiculous. But hey, it's crazy California where they are shutting down two perfectly fine nuclear reactors which generate over 4 times clean energy than this proposed facility, because now warm water is a pollutant.

I don't know that the phrase "perfectly fine" describes San Onofre which I believe is one of the two you mentioned. There were tubes cracking because Mitsubishi built new ones different from the old ones. Running the reactor at full power like they had been doing could have caused a catastrophic failure. There was a plan to run at much lower power, but that idea was also dropped.

That's why "perfectly fine" doesn't quite sum it up.

RR

 

[AntronX]

I don't know that the phrase "perfectly fine" describes San Onofre...

I meant two reactors at Diablo Canyon. 18 TWh per year vs. 4.3 TWh of enabled excess future renewables from this hydro project.

 

[miimura]

Has the Alphabet X Project Malta system been discussed here? I haven't seen it mentioned.

Alphabet Wants to Fix Renewable Energy’s Storage Problem — With Salt