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Future power systems with today's weather

model.energy

1–10 of 30 posts

Re: Future power systems with today's weather

#3

That's very cool. On the default mix over the full time period I see a price spike immediately after it starts in 2015 and then a few more then it settles down by 2020. Is that just an artefact of storage not being built up?

Looks like the demands gets lower over the years, so my guess is that the stress on storage and hydrogen gets lower, and thus the price lower too

Re: Future power systems with today's weather

#6
> "There are multi-day periods with low wind and solar output."

That's the real problem. Days of storage are required if most power is coming from non-dispatchable sources. Batteries are not cost-effective for that, at least not at present. Electricity to hydrogen and back is maybe 30% efficient. Pumped storage is much more efficient but you need the right geography - two nearby lakes at very different elevations.

This keeps leading back to natural gas peaking plants.

Re: Future power systems with today's weather

#7
post #6

> "There are multi-day periods with low wind and solar output." That's the real problem. Days of storage are required if most power is coming from non-dispatchable sources. Batteries are not cost-effective for that, at least not at present. Electricity to hydrogen and back is maybe 30% efficient. Pumped storage is much more efficient but you need the right geography - two nearby lakes at very different elevations. Th…

Note that the simulation is only for Germany. If you add other countries to the grid, there will be less no solar-no wind days.

But also peaking gas plants are not that bad. We should dream about a zero emission scenary, but a 90% less emissions is not bad either, and we can always get better and better. This is, in fact, the current trend: each month is cleaner than the last.

Re: Future power systems with today's weather

#8
post #6

> "There are multi-day periods with low wind and solar output." That's the real problem. Days of storage are required if most power is coming from non-dispatchable sources. Batteries are not cost-effective for that, at least not at present. Electricity to hydrogen and back is maybe 30% efficient. Pumped storage is much more efficient but you need the right geography - two nearby lakes at very different elevations. Th…

There is always some place on Earth where it's windy, where the sun shines, where it's summer. I have no idea if transporting such high loads on a global grid is feasible (let's say Australia's summer sun powering Europe in winter nights) but that probably works better in a peaceful world.

Re: Future power systems with today's weather

#9
post #8
post #6

> "There are multi-day periods with low wind and solar output." That's the real problem. Days of storage are required if most power is coming from non-dispatchable sources. Batteries are not cost-effective for that, at least not at present. Electricity to hydrogen and back is maybe 30% efficient. Pumped storage is much more efficient but you need the right geography - two nearby lakes at very different elevations. Th…

There is always some place on Earth where it's windy, where the sun shines, where it's summer. I have no idea if transporting such high loads on a global grid is feasible (let's say Australia's summer sun powering Europe in winter nights) but that probably works better in a peaceful world.

> let's say Australia's summer sun powering Europe in winter nights

https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/germany-s-660m-pitch-fo...

Not all energy is electricity, this is a deal for Australian sunlight --> Hydrogen | Ammonia --> Germany

https://arena.gov.au/blog/hydrogen-deal-unites-australian-in...

Re: Future power systems with today's weather

#10

Cool toy, but this is a basic simulation of energy markets. You can't talk about future power systems without addressing system inertia, unless you dont care about being realistic.

What inertia do you mean? Demand or supply? Sure, decomissioning anuclear plant takes decades but a coal plant can be shut down in about 48 hours I think and at that point produces no new emissions...
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