Tag Archives: energy storage

67 Reasons why wind turbines cannot replace fossil fuels

Posted on July 26, 2024 by

Source: Leonard, T. 2012. Broken down and rusting, is this the future of Britain’s ‘wind rush’? Preface   Last updated 2023-10-20 The most important problem to be solved is electrifying transportation, otherwise how can you deliver the 30,000 parts of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Energy, Wind | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hibernating freeze-thaw molten salt batteries for seasonal energy storage

Posted on November 25, 2022 by

Preface.  A 100% renewable grid can’t happen without long-term energy storage. Today that’s done with natural gas (with a little help from hydropower in the 10 states that have most of it). Meanwhile nuclear and coal chug along at a … Continue reading →

Posted in Battery - Utility Scale, CSP with thermal energy storage, Renewable Integration | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Hydrogen hopium: green hydrogen from water

Posted on October 14, 2022 by

Additional energy consuming steps not shown: pumping water to the electrolyzer, purifying the water, compressing or liquefying to -423 F, pumping into storage container, the trucks to deliver H to stations costing $75 million each, since pipelines are super expensive … Continue reading →

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Why wind and solar will cause more blackouts

Posted on September 26, 2021 by

Preface. Clearly fossil fuel plants need to be replaced with energy storage — batteries, pumped hydro, or compressed air. Many hours of backup power will be needed since, unfortunately, over two-thirds of total wind power in the U.S. happens outside … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts, Blackouts Electric Grid, Grid instability, National Super Grid | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Why wind and solar will cause more blackouts

Utility scale energy storage doesn’t scale up: limits to minerals and geography

Posted on March 2, 2021 by

Preface. Natural gas is finite, but aside from (pumped) hydropower, natural gas is the main way wind and solar are balanced now. Therefore, a tremendous amount of energy storage will be needed in the future as natural gas declines. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, CAES Compressed Air, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Renewable costs don’t include transmission & energy storage backup from Nat Gas & Coal plants

Posted on November 23, 2020 by

Preface. Wind and solar advocates don’t include transmission and backup costs in their net energy and cost calculations. But without fossil backup, the electric grid will come down due to lack of storage. There is almost nowhere left to put … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Energy Storage, Solar, Solar EROI, Wind, Wind EROI | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Natural Gas essential for energy storage

Posted on August 12, 2020 by

Preface.  The U.S. Department of energy has admitted that a renewable grid is impossible without long-duration storage (LDES) and plans to hand out half a billion dollars to commercialize (LDES) (Colthorpe 2022).  Another recent report also argues that round-the-clock renewables … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts, Energy Storage, Natural Gas, Natural Gas Energy Storage | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Concentrated Solar Power is dying out in the U.S.

Posted on June 12, 2020 by

Preface.  Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) contributes only 0.06 % of U.S. electricity, mainly in California (64 %) and Arizona (24 %) because extremely dry areas with no humidity, haze, or pollutants are required. Of the 1861 MW power they can … Continue reading →

Posted in Concentrated Solar Power, CSP with thermal energy storage, Grid instability, Seasonal Variation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)

Posted on October 13, 2019 by

Preface. This is the only commercial way to store energy now (CAES hardly counts with just one plant and salt domes to put more in existing in only 5 states). Though of course hydropower is only in a few states … Continue reading →

Posted in Dams, Energy Production, Hydropower, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

Challenges to the Integration of Renewable Resources at High System Penetration

Posted on February 2, 2019 by

Preface.  This overview of challenges for wind and solar written in 2010 is still true today. We are far from being able to reach even a 50% renewable grid (excluding hydropower from the total) given the lack of storage, the … Continue reading →

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