I’ll note that right now, this is a seasonal issue, associated with moderate springtime temperatures when there is a lot of sunshine available.
I’ll note that right now, this is a seasonal issue, associated with moderate springtime temperatures when there is a lot of sunshine available.
Oh no! Not an excess of available power! How will the state ever recover from such a catastrophe?
Yeah, it’s not like it can’t be saved in the brand new storage facility that happens to be one of the biggest in the world. This article reads like propaganda against solar.
It’s existence highlights the need for more, and more distributed storage. That’s a good discussion to be having
Relatively easy tech is temporary hydrogen storage. Of course hydrogen has poorer efficiency than batteries, but if all batteries are full, excess energy could be converted to hydrogen, stored, and converted back to electricity when no solar is available, and batteries are empty. Efficiency roundtrip with current tech is roughly 70%.
I hope it doesn’t spill into the water, permeate the air, or leave the land uninhabitable for thousands of years.
I’m not familiar with how power grids work, is an excess of power bad for the grid if it isn’t used?
Kind of, yeah. But excess solar can be turned off almost instantly so it isn’t like it’s an impossible problem.
Sorry for asking all these questions, but how do you turn off solar? Doesn’t it keep generating while there’s sunlight?
If it’s turned off, it’s like a battery that isn’t connected to anything. You have a voltage across the positive and negative terminals, but power can’t actually flow unless there’s somewhere for it to go.
Just disconnect the panel.
Yeah, various power generation techniques (e.g., big industrial power plants) do not want to run without a load. And switching them off temporarily isn’t really feasible (shutting them for good would ultimately be nice, but that’s another topic…).
And you can’t just “dump” huge amounts of excess of power — it needs to go somewhere.
Tesla coils?