41–50 of 325 posts
In the 80s my grandfather used to do this for the former Soviet Union. Long story short they were pressuring a salt mine at night for energy storage and somebody failed to report a water leak during the day. They tried to depressurize the mine but it ended up blowing up anyway killing a couple people in The process. This shit can be really dangerous if done incorrectly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would energy storage not be a good use of that money? Society is facing a large problem: climate change. One way to reduce the impact of climate change is to use renewable energy like solar and wind. Solar and wind have a big problem; they can't be turned on and off. That means to displace fossil fuels, we need to store energy when it's sunny and windy, and release that energy when it's not. Hence, things like compre…
Small nitpick. Wind can be turned off. The turbines can be equipped with brakes to stop power generation in case of oversupply, in addition to other uses.
> Bloomberg March 5, 2021
> Goldman Sachs Group Inc. could gain more than $200 million from the physical sale of power and natural gas and from financial hedges after spot prices surged across much of the U.S., according to people with knowledge of the matter. Morgan Stanley’s gains could come in under $200 million, according to a person with familiar with the matter, and Bank of America Corp. stands to rake in profits as well...
> The historic cold that battered the central U.S. last month led to sweeping blackouts as ice formed on wind turbines and pipelines froze, forcing oil and gas wells to shut. As traders and power suppliers struggled to find fuel to meet obligations, prices skyrocketed. In Oklahoma, gas traded at more than 300 times normal levels, while electricity in Texas surged to $9,000 per megawatt-hour.
Full article: [1] https://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=5028&mn=126049&p...
What is the expected efficiency of this?
Efficiency / cost
I am worried that the cost is the driving factor here...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who is known for their scientific prowess? A16z and with sprawling investments in web3? Capital is capital. We should be cheering on these types of investments regardless. Electric motors have been around for a looong time as well..
The VC and investment world in energy technology is quite different then the A16z and traditional VC world or financial heavyweights. Having had GS invest in companies in the energy tech space in the past and having not particularly great success - I wouldn't think this is a strong signal. More that the financial heavyweights think there is action and they want to get in.
I really enjoy learning about quirky ways to "store" energy, there is also one case that allows "storing" of energy by pushing massive concrete blocks uphill and when energy is needed, blocks simply slide down and generate energy. Not sure if this can be called "Storing" though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...
Interesting. There's a good video describing the operation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOWjwwKSR78 After watching it, I now understand that they aren't flooding the entire borehole, but rather are building a smaller high-pressure chamber at the bottom. The chamber is connected to pipes to a surface reservoir. When air is pumped into the chamber, it displaces water up toward the surface. When generating, the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Totally out of my depth here, but does cooling the gas down have the added benefit that it'll be heated by the earth whilst stored?
what would be the benefit to it being heated by the earth during storage? all the temperature management here looks to just be counteracting the temperature changes that naturally occur when you compress or expand a gas. i imagine if you compressed it and then pumped hot air into water-filled caverns you'd get some negative effects of thermal shock.
Given it's GS, $250m is peanuts.
Maybe they're referring to Goldman Sachs Capital partners which has 39.9B[0] under management which means this is 0.62% of their portfolio. In a totally chalk and cheese comparison that would be having 200k in your 401k and taking a $1,250 position in a stock, which isn't nothing but is a pretty small bet, I agree. Curious though if I'm guessing the part of GS correctly; I have no idea how they're structured and just spent like three minutes searching.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs_Capital_Partners