Electric backup
Solar panels and wind turbines pose their own problem of intermittency on an electric grid that needs power to be generated on a whim. The solution to the problem so far has been to build an equal amount of generating capacity that can be turned on immediately, which, for technical reasons, means single-cycle natural-gas power plants. From the perspective of the grid, the potential generating capacity from each solar panel or windmill requires an equal amount of generating capacity from natural gas.
Much effort and many billions have been invested in finding another way to store power from intermittent sources so that it is available when needed rather just when the wind blows or the sun shines. Ultimately this means batteries.
Batteries come in different forms. One physical battery that has been proposed as theoretically capable, if not realistic, as a backup for something the scale of our grid involves pumping water into manmade valley reservoirs, where releasing the water through turbines will produce the electricity like good old-fashioned hydropower. Last I heard—and I haven’t looked in a long time, I confess—the scale and scope required are quite enormous. Suffice it to say, there are also other complications involved in the concept.
As for the traditional chemical batteries, they seem to be the perennial favorites among many techies. The popularity of lithium-ion battery technology has been the wellspring of many hopes. That technology has spread quickly into household power tools, and then to cars. These batteries have offered the best ratio of potential power storage to battery weight than had been seen before. Many tech fans imagined Moore’s Law had spread to energy storage technology.
Moore’s Law said that computer processing power would grow exponentially far into the future, doubling at a steady rate. In fits and starts, data storage has experienced a similarly impressive medium-term trajectory. But there is little reason to suspect the chemistry in batteries could experience the pace of improvements enjoyed in computer chips and software.
The problem is that chemistry doesn’t work quite like electronics. There undoubtedly are promising battery chemical combinations yet to be discovered, but the raw materials needed to produce them won’t be as abundant as required. Often enough, the manufacturing processes required to produce the right chemical mixtures are not easy to make work on the requisite scale. By way of contrast, computer chip manufacturers are so accustomed to Moore’s Law that they foresee and plan for the next leaps in computing power years in advance. And in the interim years, a lot of computing power is gained by improving the underlying software. The chemistry is much less linear.
The available battery technology—the chemistry that is tried, tested, and proven effective, that lends itself to mass production—would require an unimaginable amount of mining and ore processing worldwide. Estimates suggest we would run through all the earth’s known reserves of lead, copper, lithium, cobalt, and other necessary metals to make enough batteries for a backup grid. And the batteries would also be required to power electric cars.
For all the expansion of battery storage that exists now, after years of consumer uptake, tech industry expansion, and government subsidy, estimates suggest the available battery backup potential for the California grid alone would offer maybe a couple of minutes of power during an outage.
Don’t get me wrong, though: I’m not writing this with the aim of discouraging the continued search for new technological solutions. But I do think we should be a bit more circumspect that the solutions will be as quick and glorious as the boosters often portray matters, whether due to vested interests or sheer enthusiasm. It seems to me that there is considerable risk of causing greater damage to the environment in the name of saving it.
Herewith endeth for now my energy obsession. I leave you, dear reader, with an early sign of our Appalachian spring.
Problem: Ample Battery Power
Solution: Just find this dude a significant other and let them do what they do best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjwcfUDnMEM
End of problem.
Well, maybe not. Unsure how to get them all to stand still long enough to hook them up to the grid. Also, the price of carrots will no doubt skyrocket.
Hi Marque and everyone
Pretty flower, is that a weed .like the smaller purple ( violets I think ) one we have that is considered a weed? Personally, I don't care, I love dandelions too, they are all pretty
I have absolutely nothing to say about electric back ups, other than I am a fan of batteries in general, ( there was a National Day for them not long ago)...they power a lot of cool stuff...and for some reason I have always been tickled by the flat lithium batteries that go in a lot of my household things...When I worked for Radio Shack I learned a lot about batteries in general, especially the rechargeable ones, which at that time were quite a bit different than they are now...And I remember the first hand held, wireless cell phone we had...and it's battery..it was quite big and very heavy, the battery was large and the phone sold for $1499.00 ( in 1980's dollars)...we still sold a ton of them when they came out...( I had a wired cell phone for my car, because working there I got a great deal...lol...)
And Sooo happy tomorrow is Friday...lol...