Sadly, wind has much better capacity factor, and works during nights and winter.
Why sad?
Getting the wrong ratio of installed green power generation means less CO2 reduction per dollar invested.
Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
11–20 of 231 posts
Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
#12I found this podcast with Jesse Jenkins to be a really helpful start to understand non fixed energy resources. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-the-sun-isnt-alwa... I thought that the most cost effective way to supply energy would require a certain amount of base load. It seems like this is a misunderstanding because of how much cheaper and more available these non fixed resources are than fixed resources.…
Yes and:
I appreciated Jenkins' explanation of the different variability time scales. "Base load" is folk understanding and not especially helpful for planning our future green energy grid.
IIRC, seconds, minutes, hours-days (diurnal), and months-years (seasonal). Meaning there's huge opportunity for all sorts of novel energy storage (and demand shifting) systems. Dynamic load balancing might use modestly sized of Li-ion batteries scattered around the grid. And thermal batteries could be used for long-term storage.
The opportunities are insurmountable. -- Yogi Bera
Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
#13I found this podcast with Jesse Jenkins to be a really helpful start to understand non fixed energy resources. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-the-sun-isnt-alwa... I thought that the most cost effective way to supply energy would require a certain amount of base load. It seems like this is a misunderstanding because of how much cheaper and more available these non fixed resources are than fixed resources.…
We're already incentivized to do things like running the dishwasher in the evening do to costs, no? Or is the implication that it would be considerably even more cheap?
Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
#14I found this podcast with Jesse Jenkins to be a really helpful start to understand non fixed energy resources. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-the-sun-isnt-alwa... I thought that the most cost effective way to supply energy would require a certain amount of base load. It seems like this is a misunderstanding because of how much cheaper and more available these non fixed resources are than fixed resources.…
Jenkins is a worthwhile follow.
Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
#15I don't get why solar is so popular.
In more northern regions, you get much less light in the winter. You effectively can only generate around one tenth of the energy you can in the summer - this is from experience talking to others who monitor their solar installations.
But, you need more energy in the winter. People are in more, using electricity for heat cos it's colder. I'm pointing out that there is a supply/demand reversal. Sure there are sweet spots in spring and autumn, but when you really need energy, you have less.
You can mitigate some minor fluctuations with batteries.... Ie you can smoothen things a bit, but you can't really take the summer's excess, to use in the winter.
It just seems like a fundamental mismatch, that leaves you exposed, when you need the most amount of support.
Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
#16I found this podcast with Jesse Jenkins to be a really helpful start to understand non fixed energy resources. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-the-sun-isnt-alwa... I thought that the most cost effective way to supply energy would require a certain amount of base load. It seems like this is a misunderstanding because of how much cheaper and more available these non fixed resources are than fixed resources.…
We're already incentivized to do things like running the dishwasher in the evening do to costs, no? Or is the implication that it would be considerably even more cheap?
Depends on where you live -- where I'm at, there's no time of day based savings (unless you're a big industrial user, IIUC).
Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
#17Sadly, wind has much better capacity factor, and works during nights and winter.
Sadly wind doesn't blow as hard during the night anyways
Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
#18I found this podcast with Jesse Jenkins to be a really helpful start to understand non fixed energy resources. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-the-sun-isnt-alwa... I thought that the most cost effective way to supply energy would require a certain amount of base load. It seems like this is a misunderstanding because of how much cheaper and more available these non fixed resources are than fixed resources.…
Yes and: I appreciated Jenkins' explanation of the different variability time scales. "Base load" is folk understanding and not especially helpful for planning our future green energy grid. IIRC, seconds, minutes, hours-days (diurnal), and months-years (seasonal). Meaning there's huge opportunity for all sorts of novel energy storage (and demand shifting) systems. Dynamic load balancing might use modestly sized of Li…
Yes, but please keep things in context. We're transitioning away from baseload, but it's a major endeavor and not going to happen over night. I think the HN crowd is a little overzealous in this area. NERC is reporting the potential for energy shortages in many regions in the United States. This was once virtually unheard of. Solar alone isn't going to fix this in the next few years and many regions still have only tiny amounts of demand that is responsive to price.
Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
#19I don't get why solar is so popular. In more northern regions, you get much less light in the winter. You effectively can only generate around one tenth of the energy you can in the summer - this is from experience talking to others who monitor their solar installations. But, you need more energy in the winter. People are in more, using electricity for heat cos it's colder. I'm pointing out that there is a supply/dem…
>But, you need more energy in the winter. People are in more, using electricity for heat cos it's colder. I'm pointing out that there is a supply/demand reversal. Sure there are sweet spots in spring and autumn, but when you really need energy, you have less.
Northern areas tend to use fossil fuels for heating at higher rates, and less heat pumps.
Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025
#20I found this podcast with Jesse Jenkins to be a really helpful start to understand non fixed energy resources. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-the-sun-isnt-alwa... I thought that the most cost effective way to supply energy would require a certain amount of base load. It seems like this is a misunderstanding because of how much cheaper and more available these non fixed resources are than fixed resources.…
We're already incentivized to do things like running the dishwasher in the evening do to costs, no? Or is the implication that it would be considerably even more cheap?
Depends on whether your jurisdiction has time of use pricing.