21–30 of 87 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And eventually that arbitrage will be big enough to justify a pumped hydro/gravity/iron-air storage.
Or possibly the return of some heavy industry?
Also true for California for quite some time. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/california-solar-... What's going to happen in the future is that May will be a month of extreme electricity abundance, with a good chunk of the electricity just not being collected at all because the grid doesn't need it, and it will be cheaper to have unused electricity in May than to have too little solar in December.
And eventually that arbitrage will be big enough to justify a pumped hydro/gravity/iron-air storage.
Also true for California for quite some time. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/california-solar-... What's going to happen in the future is that May will be a month of extreme electricity abundance, with a good chunk of the electricity just not being collected at all because the grid doesn't need it, and it will be cheaper to have unused electricity in May than to have too little solar in December.
And eventually that arbitrage will be big enough to justify a pumped hydro/gravity/iron-air storage.
good thing the President is pouring billions into restarting coal plants what a freaking horror show we are living in
Utah isn't a power grid. They're on the western interconnect. Combined solar and wind are about 25-30% of production there. These articles about individual states are trash.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And eventually that arbitrage will be big enough to justify a pumped hydro/gravity/iron-air storage.
Except the water is in short supply, so where's that magically coming from? The Great Salt Lake is shrinking and specific to Utah. Just look at Lake Meade and Hoover Dam as an example.
- pumped hydro reuses the water in a loop rather than sending it downstream like generation
- pumped hydro only needs to produce power a few times a year rather than 24/7/365 like generation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And eventually that arbitrage will be big enough to justify a pumped hydro/gravity/iron-air storage.
Or possibly the return of some heavy industry?
Heavy industries are usually pretty low on the value chain in economies. They do not provide much return on capital, compared to the high tech options and service options that are available in the US, but not available anywhere else in the world.
The rest of the (non-European) world dreams of the economic opportunities that are possible in the US, from Silicon Valley tech, to biotech, to the financial opportunities. China has been trying to climb up the value chain ladder for decades, and is slowly getting there.
It's mystifying to me why people are fantasizing about climbing down the value chain in the US, to being poorer, and allocating capital to things with lower return on investment. I just don't get it! What's the appeal?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And eventually that arbitrage will be big enough to justify a pumped hydro/gravity/iron-air storage.
Large-scale battery storage is already expanding rapidly, and is way cheaper than pumped storage.
good thing the President is pouring billions into restarting coal plants what a freaking horror show we are living in
At least at this point solar can be driven by pure market forces, it doesn't need federal subsidies to make sense.
https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/18/federal-order-keeps-w...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or possibly the return of some heavy industry?
I think the challenges for heavy industry aren't as much the cost of energy, as it is the capital cost, and a workforce that has lots of options for higher paying jobs. Heavy industries are usually pretty low on the value chain in economies. They do not provide much return on capital, compared to the high tech options and service options that are available in the US, but not available anywhere else in the world. The…
its the k shaped economy. the big opportunities are great if you can get into them, but otherwise all there is is serving coffee to the wealthy. People are already poorer without a ladder or fulfilling work at the bottom