Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear

[TheBeastie]

Until I saw this video I had decided Lithium Sulfur was a baloney battery chemistry/tech. But after watching this on MunroLive I totally flipped and decided this is the real deal and will come.

 

[JackFlorey]

Until I saw this video I had decided Lithium Sulfur was a baloney battery chemistry/tech. But after watching this on MunroLive I totally flipped and decided this is the real deal and will come.

I was a believer too, until I tested the Oxis LiS cells. Even on the 50 cycles we put on them they lost about 25% of their capacity - and started to swell.

Maybe someday.

 

[TheBeastie]

I was a believer too, until I tested the Oxis LiS cells. Even on the 50 cycles we put on them they lost about 25% of their capacity - and started to swell.

Maybe someday.

Just looking up those Oxis LiS cells, I can see they were making bold claims years before the breakthrough on Lithium Sulfur was discovered which was only like a year ago.
Watch from this point (20mins in) for about a minute where they talk about how they are using the latest breakthroughs to solve the polysulfide "shuttle" effect. They even talk about how sample cells were tested externally via their partners, and they were checking cycle life after 50 cycles and how they were then keen to work with them after cycle testing the cells themselves.

 

[Hillhater]

But they are still only at the lab test cell stage, an a long way from commercial product testing.…
…much like many other new wonder batteries !

 

[ZeroEm]

We "donated" the rest to the utility. Here we don't get credit if we generate more than we produce; we can go to zero (at which point we pay that $6 a month base rate) but never get money back when we generate more than we use. We are still on the DR rate and are on NEM 1.0 so we 'settle up' once a year, and that's when they determine how much we owe.

However we are also participating in a program called Ohm Connect, a program that's separate from our utility bill. That's a DR (demand response) program where they send out a signal and you reduce your usage - then get money back for that. It's intended for people who turn off lights, reduce their A/C usage etc during peak demand times. I have a battery system that is used specifically for that, and can dump 3000 watts back to the grid when they need it. (We talked to Ohm Connect and they are fine with this; they get paid by the kwhr reduced so they are happy to see more reductions they can monetize.) So far over the past 4 years I've made $1200.

We just switched to a heat pump for heating and cooling, so we will see if next year we still break even.

Give battery systems a lot of thought, guess the thinking should stop and go all in! Here you can store (if you can call it that) the excess and use it later.
The weather is changing here and getting hotter and the grid is not keeping up so need to do something. Don't want to dump a lot of excess on the grid or over build my solar panels just to cover the 50 hottest days. Battery back up system during the peak hours would balance it out.

Have Natural gas at the house and using less of it every year, think about a generator hooked up to it for the peak and black outs until a solar system is in place to cover all the events.

 

[JackFlorey]

Battery back up system during the peak hours would balance it out.

Yep. I would add that:

1) Used EV batteries (especially Leaf batteries) are getting very cheap, and even a Gen 1 at 70% still gives you 17kwhr
2) More and more inverters are supporting EV battery voltages (300-400 volts)
3) Even brand new batteries are hitting $300/kwhr - you can get a 48V EG4 5kW battery for under $1500 now
4) DR systems will pay you fairly big $$ to feed power back to the grid during high demand times as mentioned above, which is a way to offset some of that.

Professionally installed systems are still pricey but if you are willing to do much of the work yourself, it costs a lot less.

 

[TheBeastie]

More promising battery porn tech videos

Even if Sodium ion is not impressive in Wh/kg specs it is set to show up in Chinese EVs this year, so how bad could it be?
I have a car but for the last ~4 years I have only been driving it like 8 times a year, just for xmass family meet up or buying something large and heavy that I can't carry on my ebike. So for me a sodium-ion battery car might be an ideal cheap EV replacement of my current car.

 

[TheBeastie]

Who wants more renewable energy porn!? Turns out that significantly greater power in MW can be generated from wind-turbines the bigger you make each in blade size... The increase in power generated is kind of exponential with bigger blades for the same wind-speed. Another way the video claims it is if u double the wind speed u octuple the energy output

 

[Deleted member 82754 (removed by user request)]

So what happens to the earth when the wind turbines suck so much energy from the wind that waves cannot be made. That energy was to be sucked up by the earth and its living organisms. Will trees get weak and break due to the lack of wind to make them strong.

 

[harrisonpatm]

So what happens to the earth when the wind turbines suck so much energy from the wind that waves cannot be made. That energy was to be sucked up by the earth and its living organisms. Will trees get weak and break due to the lack of wind to make them strong.

This might be one of the wildest arguments against wind turbines that I've ever heard

 

[Deleted member 82754 (removed by user request)]

not arguing at all and have not posted anywhere that I am against them. just saying, (asking) aren't ocean currents a major contributing factor to the earth's climate. what creates ocean currents? waves? what creates waves? wind?

 

[harrisonpatm]

not arguing at all and have not posted anywhere that I am against them. just saying, (asking) aren't ocean currents a major contributing factor to the earth's climate. what creates ocean currents? waves? what creates waves? wind?

Wind turbines don't block wind.

Betz's law - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And even if they did. How many wind turbines do you think are being made that waves no longer exist?

 

[CONSIDERABLE SHOUTING]

So what happens to the earth when the wind turbines suck so much energy from the wind that waves cannot be made. That energy was to be sucked up by the earth and its living organisms. Will trees get weak and break due to the lack of wind to make them strong.

Wind is caused by the sun warming and cooling different areas of the earth differently. As long as the earth has temperature differences, it has wind and waves.

 

[JackFlorey]

So what happens to the earth when the wind turbines suck so much energy from the wind that waves cannot be made. That energy was to be sucked up by the earth and its living organisms. Will trees get weak and break due to the lack of wind to make them strong.

Yeah! And what if you put up so many turbines that the Earth stops spinning, or so many solar panels that they suck all the energy out of the Sun? We'd be in deep doo-doo then!

 

[Deleted member 82754 (removed by user request)]

yup and the inventors of the internal combustion engine had no clue of the "inconvenient truth" coming their way either.

 

[Hillhater]

yup and the inventors of the internal combustion engine had no clue of the "inconvenient truth" coming their way either.

Whay exacctly might that “inconvnient truth” be ..?

 

[JackFlorey]

yup and the inventors of the internal combustion engine had no clue of the "inconvenient truth" coming their way either.

Oh I think they have a good idea. Carburetors gave way to fuel injection. Vacuum advance gave way to computer engine controls. All inventors realize that technology (and invention) moves on.

 

[nicobie]

I wonder if this thread will ever die?

 

[Ianhill]

I wonder if this thread will ever die?

I sure hope not ive enjoyed reading this madness im sure chay gbt will resurrect this thread in years to come when humans are gone laughing at why not to be human, doesn't exactly sell us in our best light.

 

[Hillhater]

I sure hope not ive enjoyed reading this madness im sure chay gbt will resurrect this thread in years to come when humans are gone laughing at why not to be human, doesn't exactly sell us in our best light.

Yes, im pretty sure there will be a lot of self reflection and reconsideration in the future when the hard reality of. “Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear”……. finally reveals itself !

 

[JackFlorey]

Yes, im pretty sure there will be a lot of self reflection and reconsideration in the future when the hard reality of. “Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear”……. finally reveals itself !

Agreed. Given today's trends, the outcome is pretty certain.

Solar growing 40% a year
Wind growing 30% a year
US BESS installations tripled in 2021, doubled in 2022
6% of US coal capacity retired at the end of 2022

 

[Hillhater]

Solar growing 40% a year
Wind growing 30% a year
US BESS installations tripled in 2021, doubled in 2022

….all % from a low base !
…whilst everywhere electricity supply becomes more and more critical and prices continue to rise ..!

 

[JackFlorey]

….all % from a low base !

In California, solar and wind provide 28% of all electrical power. More than nuclear. More than large hydro. Far more than coal.

And that number is increasing.

 

[Hillhater]

In California, solar and wind provide 28% of all electrical power. More than nuclear. More than large hydro. Far more than coal.

As it should, considering that CA has closed all but 1 of its Nuk’s and only has 64 MW of coal generation left.
But why only 28% ?… since there is 23+GW of wind and solar installed to supply an average demand of about 30 GW ?
And dont forget, that the majority of Ca’s electricity is still from Gas generation and 25+% imported from other states due to the shortcomings of all that wind and solar !!
..meanwhile, the price of electricity continues to rise……folowing the introduction of wind and solar and the closing of those Nuk’s and coal plants

 

[Ianhill]

You will power nothing and be happy, klaus schwab.