The Switch: Using heat storage as an alternative to lithium batteries REUTERS

[ihaveaquestion]

Aug 28, 2024 #News #business #solar
Solar and wind energy now provide cheaper electricity than fossil fuels, but their intermittent nature means storing that power is a huge challenge. CEO John O’Donnell of Rondo Energy told Reuters that storing it as heat is one way to cut reliance on lithium batteries.

[sarchasm]

1. Excellent! IMO they can't go fast enough.

[rampartd]

2. bricks,m even refactory brick, is cheap, easy t56o make, and are easily deposed of (as ballast, building material, or la

[Think. Again.]

3. I'm glad to see that...

...in spite of the fossil fuel industry's massive spending to slow the transition away from CO2, we are still being innovative and creative in the many, many ways we can power our society without killing it.

[NNadir]

4. Um, um, um...

It's an even worse thermodynamic nightmare to generate heat from so called "renewable energy" than batteries or worse, hydrogen.

Where heat is the first step in a process of generating electricity, as in combustion or in the world shattering best case, a nuclear plant, it makes sense. This is the idea behind the Terrapower reactor that is now proceeding in Wyoming. It is, however absurd for solar PV and wind. As for CSP, nothing other than the case now observed, dangerous natural gas, will make that environmental disaster sustainable.