[Big Dave]

The German video had a lot of "ifs" and "coulds" and other expressions of uncertainty. Sounds like it has an equal probability of being vaporware.

The plan is built on a number of things not likely in the US.

1. The Germans' plan would require a big increase in T&D lines to wheel power about the country. When was the last time a T&D project of any size was done in the US? Last one I can think of was a 25 mile interconnector link that Schwartzenegger pushed through eminent domain to mitigate the power wheeling problems CA had in the early part of the decade. The German plan would require thousands of miles of either 765 kV or DC transmission lines. It would take decades to force that through the courts.

2. A biogas generating plant is still a generating plant and still subject to New Source Review. for the US we are not talking dinky little 70 Mw peakers. We are talking 400 Mw minimum. Not to mention the emissions from the gasification process itself. Surely nobody things that destructive distillation of cellulose is going to occur without air pollution. It would take at least a decade to get the permit and years more of court challenges.

3. Most of the good pumped storage sites in the US have already been developed. In the West you get into water rights issues. In the Midwest and Middle South you have no delta-y. Once again you are talking more than a decade to get the necessary permits and fight off court challenges.

4. Flywheels, spinning on gas bearing and in a vacuum to eliminate windage, were tried back in the 1970s. Energy storage goes up with the square of the RPM so 100,000 RPM was the starting point. Even with carbon fiber wheel webs they flew apart before they got anywhere near the necessary RPM. Nice idea. Doesn't work.

5. The only idea that is not poisoned is the vanadium redox battery, and it is still at a primitive stage. The technology is at least a decade away from application if some lawyer doesn't find a way to challenge it in court for decades more.