Keystone pipeline springs leak in South Dakota

[Benton]

(11-27-2017, 02:14 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Saw an article related to this topic we were discussing a couple days ago, but then P&R went on that like 4-5 day break.

Tesla just finished building the world's largest lithium ion battery in South Australia as an effort to help with their blackout problems by creating more stability. It was a $50m station. The problem? Brand new, it can store enough energy to power 30,000 houses for 1 hour.

Think about that. $50m to be able to store the power to run 30,000 houses for 1 hour.... in an area of 1.7m people. Nevermind that in 5 years those batteries will likely only be able to store enough to run like 15,000 houses for 1 hour. Just a continuation of a massive waste of money.

And they still require diesel backups.


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Green energy just simply isn't efficient/affordable enough to be practical yet. What they should be focused on is how to make nuclear energy even more efficient and safe, and updating old plants. The US hasn't built a nuclear reactor since like '96, and it still produces almost 20% of the country's energy.

A little more on the story, which I thought was interesting.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/07/tesla-to-build-worlds-biggest-lithium-ion-battery-in-south-australia

One thing I did notice, though, is the intent of the battery. 

Quote:“You can essentially charge up the battery packs when you have excess power when the cost of production is very low ... and then discharge it when the cost of power production is high, and this effectively lowers the average cost to the end customer,” Musk said. “It’s a fundamental efficiency improvement for the grid.”

I've done several stories with TVA, and peak power is an issue in terms of cost. Their hydroelectric dams provide a lot of electricity that's pretty cheap and clean... but it's not enough to meet demand during certain times of the year. August when air conditioners are going and tourism is peaking, December when holiday events are burning up meters. So they have to use more from their more expensive plants to keep up. TVA is a wholesaler of electricity; if they can't meet peak demand, they have to buy additional plants, which may be virtually dormant at times of the day/month.

I'm not in energy, but I would think a 'mega battery' project where storing cheaper clean energy like the Australian wind farm or TVA's hydroelectric would have some cost savings over buying a coal plant to prevent brown outs 3-6 hours a day.