[ExI] solar is looking better all the time: was RE: Efficiency of wind power

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 12:03:13AM +0930, Emlyn wrote:

> The grid is a centralising, industrial age technology, solar isn't.

Which is why the grid has so much pain dealing with it.
Can't be helped.

> Surely we'll see solar uptake largely in a decentralised setting
> (householders, business), with the grid eventually reforming into
> something useful in that context, but some time after.

The time is now. 17 GW of peak solar nevermind wind are bringing
the grid to the limits, and our grid is in slightly better shape
than elsewhere. The problem is both capacity, which is easy, but
also moving away from central control. Long-term, it may go DC
or offer galvanic separation (pipes for gases or liquids).
 
> Meanwhile, for storage, isn't it more likely we'll see super/ultra
> caps than conventional batteries?

Supercaps are great for providing peak current. Not quite enough
to reach even today's lithium-ion energy density. You will not
see conventional batteries, but large and very lage scale
installations built on cheap, durable, nontoxic electrochemistries.

This is a field in flux, but not done yet. Luckily, we don't
have to solve that immediately, provided we can upgrade the grid.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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