Hippocampus
Guru
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2020
- Messages
- 4,182
- Location
- Plymouth
- Vessel Name
- Hippocampus
- Vessel Make
- Nordic Tug 42
Solar alone is not suitable for huge base load 24/7 industrial operations. Or Las Vegas when the lights come on.
The beauty of fission, gas, coal and hydro are they are 24/7 and adjustable to meet demand. Tie all of these together in a reliable grid such as exists in most of Europe and NA allows solar and wind sporadic power generation to work effortlessly.
BTW, BPs fossil refineries operate 24/7 producing raw materials for manufacturing of solar and wind final assembly - and Willards too!
You’re avoiding the simple reality that transmission losses are low and storage is possible. Doesn’t even need to be batteries. Pump water up a hill. Drive turbines at night or when the sun doesn’t shine. In last post thought I made it clear a mix is in our future. I live in south eastern Massachusetts. My street gets its juice from offshore/ on land wind (btw its windy at night), Canadian hydro, until recently a nuclear plant 2 miles away, and solar. The mix will be dependent upon locale. They’re building geo for electricity production in Utah. Who would have thought it! Now economically feasible using fracking technology. As Peter said a watt is a watt. Energy can be stored in various forms and a joule is a joule. Transformation between forms is quite doable with very modest losses.
Last edited: