Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity | They’re delivering solar power after dark in California and helping to stabilize grids in other states. The technology is expanding

www.nytimes.com Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity

They’re delivering solar power after dark in California and helping to stabilize grids in other states. And the technology is expanding rapidly.

United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity | They’re delivering solar power after dark in California and helping to stabilize grids in other states. The technology is expanding

24 comments

Hell yeah!

And with sodium batteries finally starting to kick off we're even having more climate friendly batteries to store that energy as well

39
- Are they viable yet for solar for the masses? Last I heard they have such a huge voltage range that they require new/redesigned/other inverters. I haven't checked in the progress of those recently.
  
  7
  
  I believe a decent number of modern inverters and BMS’s have gotten around to adding a preset for them now. The steeper curve is definitely still a disadvantage compared to the LFP cells we’ve gotten used to.
  
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Solar+ batteries is now cheaper than nuclear. I'm a fan of nuclear but it's no longer needed.

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- Also it would take too long to build the nuclear plants. I’m all for building them but they’ll take like 10+ years. In the meantime we need to use solar/wind + batteries.
  
  16
  
  We could have avoided burning a ton of fossil fuels if nuclear hadn't been demonized in the 60's, but as it stands, that ship has sailed. Let's skip that stage on the tech tree and move to fully renewable!
  
  Edit: I guess I should say that I think nuclear will and should continue to be a pivotal part of any smart grid for a long time, since it fills a niche that "true" renewables can't yet. I just don't think pushing to build them now is ideal, as it's more pressing to decommission all fossil fuels plants ASAP by any means necessary (which might mean using only the existing nuclear plants while we ramp up production of other green energy sources)
  
  18
  
  I agree. With the cost reduction on renewables, grid-scale nuclear doesn't make a lot of sense anymore.
  
  However, I hope that nuclear will get a revival with SMR technology. Especially as local power facilities for things like data centers and auto plants and other industrial facilities that require as much power as a small nation.
  
  9
- The main advantage of nuclear is the steady production of power that does not need to be stored and can be used on demand by the grid.
  
  Solar is great but we will need an alternative to form the backbone of our grid until energy storage advances. Nuclear is a great contender for them to get away from natural gas.
  
  3
  
  Batteries give stability to the grid. It doesn't matter where the generation comes from as long as it's there.
  
  Worrying that batteries drain is like worrying that your fuel rods deplete (they have a 6 year lifespan)- You build the capacity so it's never a problem.
  
  0
- Nuclear could be useful in applications that need a high energy load on-site, like steel, cement, and nitrogen production
  
  2
Meanwhile, TVA (powering huge portions of the Eastern U.S.) is doubling down on fossil fuels, and isn't even putting any meaningful effort into solar. 🤦‍♂️

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/17/climate/tennessee-valley-authority-biden-climate.html

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- The market will dictate what happens long term. Solar will continue to drop in price and most fossil fuel usage will drop as a result.
  
  6
  
  Especially if we start removing subsides from the from the fossil fuel industry
  
  7
No mention of the NEM 3 changes that spurred solar companies to push batteries as part of the solar offerings due to massive solar credit increases at specific times but massive reductions at others. Completely changed the landscape around solar installs.

6
- For rooftop, definitely. But those were (at peak) only about 5% of annual solar installs in California. It's almost all utility-scale.
  
  7
  
  I don’t know why you think that. Battery installs are over 40% of solar installs right now in CA.
  
  1
What do you do when there's no sun/wind?

What do you do when there's no fuel or breathable air?

5
This is billions of dollars worth of batteries and energy generation that is being fulfilled by CATL because no American org has the battery technology for that scale of energy storage. America is falling behind in technology for this century.

3
But... but... muh baseload!

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