• SuperSpruce
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    9 months ago

    If the excess energy cannot be stored, it should be used for something energy intensive like desalination or carbon capture.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Or just fill debts. Overclock every air conditioner freezer and industrial coolant system for those hours, store that not-heat. Do cpu intensive processes, time industrial machinery to be active during those hours, Sure, desalination, but pumped hydro(even just on a residential scale, more water towers, dammit!) or… Anything.

      OR we could just decline to build them because they’re… Sometimes too good to make a profit off of?

      • bier@feddit.nl
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        9 months ago

        Yes we need more long time energy storage. It helps to balance the energy grid and it helps for days when not enough energy is produced. Batteries aren’t really the answer, but pumping water uphill might be.

      • doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        Many places actually do pump water uphill into reservoir lakes for hydroelectric dams. In that case it is a form of energy storage, a literal water battery.

        Unfortunately, it’s not always a feasible option. For instance, in the great planes there’s not much of an uphill to pump the water to.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          I’ve seen some interesting ideas from Low Tech Magazine - one that I found particularly interesting was flywheel energy storage. Take a heavy disk or drum and spin it up with excess electricity, then discharge the spin from the battery when the Sun goes down.