this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
28 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
37747 readers
182 users here now
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah, large-scale power plants have an efficiency of maybe 55%. Small scale heat engines are pretty hard to make work better than 30%.
Storage with solid weights is probably competitive with this. Hopefully someone figures out a low-cost grid battery.
On the other hand, if you're running an electrically-heated concrete furnace, this is great. You heat when electricity is plentiful and coast for the rest of the time.