• HeartyBeast
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    1304 months ago

    No. That’s like saying the UK has too much wind power because our prices occasionally go negative. What Germany might not have enough of is battery and other storage

    • Chloë (she/her)
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      324 months ago

      Did you know that the best way we currently have to store energy are dams? In most dams you can install a pump to take water and store it higher, then when energy is needed you simply open the turbine.

      • @[email protected]
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        354 months ago

        The problem with dams or pumped storage is it only works in specific places where you have a higher place to put lots of water.

          • @[email protected]
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            14 months ago

            I would be all for that, but I think a lot of smaller tanks of compressed air might be better or easier.

            A dam would be a huge natural tank. I can’t think of a similar structure that is safe enough to prevent widespread destruction.

      • HeartyBeast
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        44 months ago

        You need a certain kind of landscape for that. I think the UK only has a couple of pumped storage power stations due to lack of suitable sites

        • @[email protected]
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          14 months ago

          Pretty sure geographically germany still has a few nice spots for it. Allgau, Schwarzwald, Pfälzerwald …

          It’s just all these damn people with their damn towns and livelyhoods that are in the way.

      • BigFig
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        14 months ago

        Hydrogen and Methane Power-to-gas can store more power for longer than hydro pump

          • @[email protected]
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            4 months ago

            The downvotes are because almost all of the global hydrogen production is made either with natural gas, as a byproduct of oil drilling or through coal.

            In its current state, it is a fake green product pushed by the oil industry to hamper the transition.

            • @[email protected]
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              114 months ago

              Ah - that makes sense, thank you. You’re correct, but I work in the aerospace industry with hydrogen fuel cells and green hydrogen is all I’m familiar with, but I realize now that this was bias on my part.

            • @[email protected]
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              44 months ago

              Is hydrolysis not cost-effective? If we have excess electricity, as in this case, can we not use that to get hydrogen?

            • BigFig
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              24 months ago

              On the recent lemmy topic of using up votes and down votes incorrectly.

              Literally just stating a verifiable fact, not in support or against the technology, and I get down voted lol.

        • Chloë (she/her)
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          44 months ago

          huh i hadn’t heard of this one? I went to a dam last year and that’s what the guide told us…

          • bobburger
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            44 months ago

            I think it’s the physical size of the reservoir that is the limiting factor. You can’t reasonable expand most reservoirs, but it’s relatively easy to create new hydrogen/methane storage tanks.

            • @[email protected]
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              24 months ago

              Yes but pumped storage is about 80% round trip efficiency vs power to x which is barely touching 20% out of the lab. And power to X needs an epic fuckton of very clean water, which also isn’t easy to find.

        • @[email protected]
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          14 months ago

          At huge inefficiency loss though. Denmark is probably further with this than anywhere else in the world and even they are sputtering on getting this going.