scrubbedexpat099

Storing heat then converting it to steam to generate electricity. From what little I know the proponents are North European but the plants are more southerly located.

The better solution to AC demand is through design, a PV system to power a conventional AC system would be uneconomic currently.

holly_1948

Love it. Had me in stitches.

holly_1948

In Dixie, sure.
Not in Bonnie Scotland methinks.

Hotscot

The Cruachan power station at Loch Awe....they pump water up the hill when electricity is on low tariff, then they let it flow down and the turbines produce electricity when the tariff is high.

http://www.visitcruachan.co.uk/about/

Pulaski

I sincerely doubt there are more than a tiny number of houses in Scotland with AC, and those that do have it would only need it for a few (non-continuous) weeks a year, and a few hours a day.

Pulaski

I think Dinorwig in north Wales was the first such installation in the UK. I guess it must have been somewhat successful if they built another.

scrubbedexpat099

I seem to remember one in Wales as well, that is the one I was thinking of when it was mentioned.

My understanding is that the process is relatively inefficient, I can see why, and I am sure a bit of research would help.

I believe the justification was that it was essentially energy that would have been wasted so even a relatively high loss rate was acceptable.

Quite how molten salt will work in a Scottish winter is another issue.

Perhaps they could store heat in the deep fat fryers, kill 2 birds.

sir_eccles

Arizona http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201...ar-plant-salt/

scrubbedexpat099

I think Fried Mars Bar references are now deemed racist.

scrubbedexpat099

Arizona is the crux.

Anyway 3sq miles of reflectors generates enough for 70,000 people during day light hours and 6 hours afterwards.

The general principal makes sense assuming there is nothing hidden.

Arizona of course has a lot more sun and more evenly spread between summer and winter. And a lot of space.

Translate that to Scotland, the stored energy would be much less and would not get you past Eastenders.

In a Scottish location you would to serve the same number of people need much more land and much more equipment. And whilst in the Summer you would be quids in, during the winter another issue.

holly_1948

I guess nuclear, solar and wind are just about the only sources for which "use it or lose it" applies. That it costs the same or even less to generate than to idle.
Just about anything else (including hydro) you can usually turn down the wick and save the fuel for later.
Dinorwic is pretty special in that it can be spun up and on full load in perhaps ten seconds as contrasted with two or more minutes for natural gas.
However almost all of the time it is just a big capital investment that sits there doing nothing much except waiting for an emergency to respond to.

During those critical ten seconds conventional plant runs far above its rated average power to meet the surge in demand. Something that can be achieved only temporarily by letting the water level in the boiler fall (but not below the safe limit).

How do I know all this? I used to write applications for patents for electrical inventions before I retired.

scrubbedexpat099

Wave as well.

i would imagine Coal is not very responsive.

You need a balance, like in anything. I have friends off grid and we are very PV friendly.

Thinking of the one I know most about they have a nice system, PV with Batteries and a diesel as last resort.

They on an individual basis balance their use and supply, we expect a grid to do that for us.

I think the future will move to more decentralized systems. The best fit for Colorado will not be the same as for Scotland.

Nutek

?

Hotscot

Yummy.

Pulaski

It needs all the help it can get!