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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] 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...