this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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I don't think that's true, do you have sources for that? Because my understanding is that solar/wind is cheaper than natural gas, but battery storage makes it way more expensive at scale.
There’s a huge difference between day/night storage which is sufficient for most locations in the world that are somewhat closer to the equator, and seasonal storage. We have no good solution for seasonal storage at the moment.
Exactly. Day/night storage can probably be met (at least partially) by using EVs (i.e. arrive at work empty, recharge from solar, arrive at home full). But that's not going to be enough to get through the winter in higher latitudes.
That's why we need a reliable base load, and natural gas is very attractive because it's:
Battery storage is prohibitively expensive in many parts of the world, and there aren't very many ready alternatives. I think we should be investing in nuclear power instead of utility grade battery backups, and we should be looking at EVs to help even out the day/night cycle.
Hydro is a good option for this, if you have a big enough lake. It can ramp up and down very fast, meaning it's great for filling in gaps between other renewables.
Yah, downvote the guy for asking for sources for a baseless claim. I have heavy doubts that battery storage is anywhere near as cost effective as NG turbines. I'd love to see some real numbers on that.
And I say this as someone with a house running on batteries and solar exclusively.
I guess it kinda depends on how and where you source your batteries.
There was something in Australia I think that was using old EV batteries for grid scale power storage. As EV adoption goes up eventually old batteries will get pulled from vehicles, and reusing them for grid or even home scale power storage is a great use.
What is your understanding based on?
Regarding production batteries might be more expensive, but they can be charged some thousand times without any additional cost
Just from looking at some government studies. This doesn't necessarily compare longer-term costs, but it does give some direct comparisons between storage options.
I'm certainly no expert here, but just throwing out some rough estimates of battery degradation, it doesn't seem to be cost-effective vs natural gas, which is already only slightly more expensive than solar. So solar plus battery storage seems to be significantly more expensive than natural gas.
It's certainly more complex than that (i.e. you'd need less generation if battery backup is plentiful), but that's the data I'm looking at.
But how can one consider natural gas? The whole point is to avoid getting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere?!
No, the point is to put less greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Natural gas is way cleaner than coal, and it's quite a bit cheaper (from what I can tell) vs battery storage. Everything has a cost tradeoff, and the cost tradeoff for natural gas is very attractive right now. Maybe we'll develop some really inexpensive energy storage (sodium batteries look promising), but regardless of what we come up with, there will be a transition period where we roll it out, and natural gas is a fantastic alternative until that's done because supply lines are already in place.
It might be cheaper but that is a pure capitalistic point of view. And capitalism is what brought us to our worlds current state
Yes, the current state is a pretty near constant improvement on standard of living and a pretty steady decrease in greenhouse emissions (at least in the US) despite rising population and access to gadgets. Electric vehicles exist because capitalists found a niche and exploited it at a time when battery densities could finally support a reasonable range. Rooftop solar exists because people care and can afford to place them on their houses. Governments came in later to help encourage those, but the tech existed before the subsidies did.
Capitalism isn't the enemy, it's merely a force that can be channeled to create a lot of good in the world. If a society sets up the right incentives, capitalism is incredibly efficient at meeting the demand.
So we shouldn't be destroying the economy to combat climate change, we should be channeling the economy to combat climate change. For example:
Most of the reason renewables are less attractive vs fossil fuels is because fossil fuels don't need to pay for negative externalities like pollution. If we add that in, the market will adapt and change their operations to reduce costs.
gas turbines are also fantastically versatile. any petroleum fraction lighter than grease, ethanol, biogas, syngas, hydrogen, ammonia, really anything that burns and can get through nozzle can be used as a fuel. if you have a carbon-neutral source of liquid fuel that can be stored, you have carbon neutral peaker plant
Which is why hydrogen is so interesting to me, especially solar-generated hydrogen. It's a pain to store, but if it's used relatively quickly, the losses should be small enough to make it worthwhile. AFAIK, most hydrogen generation is powered by fossil fuels, but there is a path for shifting to renewable generation. I'm a big fan of warehouses generating their own hydrogen and supplementing it with grid-powered hydrogen generation because there's a path toward full renewable hydrogen.
I don't know how hard it is to transition a natural gas plant to a hydrogen plant (or other fuel source), but I do think any step that reduces our emissions is a step we ought to seriously consider taking. Don't let perfect be the enemy of better.
The pain with hydrogen storage isn't just leakage (which is a huge problem because of how small the molecule is), but energy density. Gaseous hydrogen needs either extremely large containers or really extreme pressures (meaning thick, heavy, expensive) and even then its not very much energy storage. To get even higher density requires liquification, which means which is only reached at −253°C (−423°F), and that also requires large expensive machinery and energy to run it.
Unless you're changing hydrogen into something else (like ammonia), hydrogen isn't a great solution for energy storage or transportation.
easy high power generation from hydrogen would be in gas turbines, but this will have horrendous roundtrip efficiency. which is why it'd be better to soak up peak power in hydrogen and use it for non-power uses, like ammonia and then fertilizers, or direct reduced iron, or various hydrogenations in fine chemicals segment. these things take a solid chunk of energy to make. it's net positive because it replaces gas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_reforming while storing hydrogen is pain it's easier than electricity, and some intermediate can be stored too if hydrogen consumption can be surged