71–80 of 190 posts
This is super cool but the ending is bizarre. > A comment on the YouTube video below complained, “Not a word about return on investment in the presentation. That means it’ll never pay off” MAGAlomaniacs are everywhere these days. Given the supposed 50+ year lifespan of such a battery, I find it hard to believe it doesn't turn a profit at some point. And I understand that debunking low-effort accusations is asymmetric…
Very interesting. Did anyone find a ROI calculation?
Or is there a way to "retrofit" district heating into houses with their own gas boiler or heat pump ?
This is super cool but the ending is bizarre. > A comment on the YouTube video below complained, “Not a word about return on investment in the presentation. That means it’ll never pay off” MAGAlomaniacs are everywhere these days. Given the supposed 50+ year lifespan of such a battery, I find it hard to believe it doesn't turn a profit at some point. And I understand that debunking low-effort accusations is asymmetric…
> And I understand that debunking low-effort accusations is asymmetric warfare Is the comment even that unfair? Asserting that it will never pay off because the presentation avoided mentioning anything about the payoff might be a little bit cynical, but not terribly so. It could be fairly presumed that if the project is a clear economic win, they would be proudly bragging about it; and the opposite presumption is als…
Finland is still 25% oil for electric generation [1] (and almost 40% fossil fuel). That means a lot of the electricity to heat the sand still comes from oil. It makes me wonder if this is more efficient than just using oil heating. Or some hybrid approach that uses oil to heat the sand. Of course there are other benefits: it's still a good way to level electric generation, which is important for e.g. nuclear plants a…
This is not a valid conclusion. Battery projects like this are gonna charge/heat up when the electricity price is low, electricity price is low when supply/demand ratio is high and this often happens when renewable electricity is most available and makes up a disproportionate share of the electricity mix.
Edit: Your graph is not what you say it is, this shows primary energy (i.e. includes fuel/heating/...), not "electric generation". Electricity in Finland is mostly nuclear, wind, hydro and certainly not "40% fossil fuel".
It seems to depend on having a network to distribute heat, which is something that you have to take into account... basically when you create your town ? Or is there a way to "retrofit" district heating into houses with their own gas boiler or heat pump ?
Very interesting. Did anyone find a ROI calculation?
Norway's sovereign wealth fund will likely be completely gone in 20 years and will leave large swathes of the population without a pension because the Norwegian government works on the philosophy of "it's going to be okay, we have infinite money", already it's showing cracks as the only thing they actually have the money for is to make inflation skyrocket.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
presumably you need the insulation from the air, otherwise it would just sort of dissipate through the ground
Open air is not a good insulator; that's why we wear coats! In contrast the ground is actually a pretty good insulator - that's why the London underground is so hot; the heat is all stuck in the ground. It'll just be cheaper to build it on the ground than to dig a big hole and then build it in the hole.
Air is a pretty good insulator, we wear coats to prevent air from moving around. How do most coats keep you warm? Trapped air.
The London underground is hot because the ground is an okay-ish heat conductor: it carries heat away well enough that for a century it essentially acted as an unlimited heat sink, so during its initial construction they never bothered to build proper ventilation. In fact, it was advertised as the perfect place to stay cool during the summer! But this has gone on for long enough that a significant area around the tubes has gradually warmed up from 14C to 19C-26C, and the smaller temperature gradient from tube-to-ground means less heat is carried away, which means the tubes now stay hotter.
Had ground been a great insulator the Victorians would've had to install a proper ventilation system from the start, and they wouldn't been having this issue right now. On the other hand, had ground been a great conductor this issue would've taken far longer to pop up as the heat would've spread through the ground faster.
It seems to depend on having a network to distribute heat, which is something that you have to take into account... basically when you create your town ? Or is there a way to "retrofit" district heating into houses with their own gas boiler or heat pump ?