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Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem. As electricity prices go negative, the Golden State is struggling to offload a glut of solar power (wapo.st)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'll note that right now, this is a seasonal issue, associated with moderate springtime temperatures when there is a lot of sunshine available.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (18 children)

This is only a problem because of money. Maybe California should install some power storage centers in order to hold the excess for later.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I'm hoping to one day install some solar, and looking forward to setting up non-battery "storage"

e.g., electric water heater that turns on when there's an excess of power, deep freezer that gets as cold as possible when there's excess power, that sort of thing. It seems thermodynamics is the relevant discipline for these sorts of "storage" methods :)

As an aside

while smart devices are much maligned, some rudimentary smart features for matching consumption seems like a pretty good idea. (If I ever get around to this stuff it'll be local control via HomeAssistant.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Im a fan of gravity based energy storage. Excess energy is used to raise a weight up a slope and it can be reclaimed when the weight is released.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

There is a reason why energy based energy storage is not more developed right now (with the exception of Pumped-storage hydroelectricity). It's not very dense at all.

A 15 tons block of concrete that goes up 100m can only store 4kwh of energy. A 4.5kwh battery cost around 1600€.

Gravity based energy storage seem simple and elegant at first but you go into the details you realized that is far far les efficient than regular chemical battery. Unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Absolutely! Living in a city, this gets a bit tricky though. But if I had a giant reservoir on a hill...and another one below it...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Why would you convert electricity into thermal work then back again? Why not consider old school batteries? You're already taking up space and infrastructure

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh, I have no intention of converting that back to electricity. The goal would essentially be to maximize usage during times of cheap/marginally free energy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Ah, that makes sense.

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