203
A near 100pct renewable grid for Australia is feasible and affordable, with just a few hours of storage
(reneweconomy.com.au)
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
203 points (99.0% liked)
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Check this out: https://raygen.com/projects/raygen-power-plant#resources
Batteries were a stopgap until we worked out something better. This plant gets 70% efficiency and more than enough energy storage by refrigerating a cold block, then using stored waste heat + the cold block to create a temperature differential, creating steam (in a closed loop, don't need a big water supply) to spin a turbine that generates power when the sun goes down. Absolutely genius, already deployed and operating and yet nobody is talking about it.
What's the advantage of that solution over existing solutions like heating molten salts?
Efficiency. You're collecting 70% (potentially 80%) of the available energy. The best PV is below 30% and the best molten salts are 35% max.
I thought molten salt storage gets like 90% efficiency. What's the advantage of storing energy by cooling blocks?
To run a heat engine you need a temperature difference in order to generate work. When your system generates heat as a byproduct you can amplify the amount of work by increasing the temperature difference. This is how the cold block "stores" energy.
What's your source on 90% efficiency? Here it's stated 35% max.
I'm just talking about storage. Molten salt energy storage is mentioned here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_energy_storage