Quote:
Originally Posted by IamIan
Or Option C , you didn't include ... storage of excess production during those times when demand reduces on its own ... no mandated less demand required ... no increased production required.
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Grid power storage is a bad idea, you instantly lose up to 10% to 30% of the power you are trying to store by storing it up and releasing it.
Over on wind-sun.com they claim the typical off grid PV to lead acid to ACpower setup as being around 67% efficient by the time the power gets used in your home.
So how do you get more power out of a system by adding on a new system that has automatic losses of up to 30%?
Normally you think batteries are the obvious answer only problem is they have limited life spans and when they go bad you have tons of lead, nickel or lovely cadmium to deal with. The amounts of metal needed would be in the millions of tons tons range. It takes around 50lbs of lead just to hold 1KWH of useable power in a lead acid battery. Lead is the most likely candidate for battery storage.
If you are going to use Nickel based chemistry then you might as well forget about building a whole lot of electric and hybrid car batteries.
If the smart grid uses batteries or some other means to store power its going to be even less efficient and cost more than what we have now.
It sounds like the smart grid has a huge potential to increase wastes of all different kinds.
The only grid storage that has good potential is the one we have been using for years already. Its safe, there are no toxic metals involved and makes up over 99% of grid storage capacity already. Its called pumped hydroelectric storage. Only problem is it doesn't work every where.