The Remarkable Progress of Renewable Energy

[Elixir]

If only solar energy could be stored in something like…a battery?

A free battery made with no environmental impact that's as safe as a nuclear power plant?

Yeah, if only.

Meanwhile, the laws of physics continue to apply, even if you prefer to ignore them.

We almost have them. They’re called water pumps. (You could even run them off a reactor’s output, by why bother if you have one of those?)

 

[bilby]

If only solar energy could be stored in something like…a battery?

A free battery made with no environmental impact that's as safe as a nuclear power plant?

Yeah, if only.

Meanwhile, the laws of physics continue to apply, even if you prefer to ignore them.

We almost have them. They’re called water pumps. (You could even run them off a reactor’s output, by why bother if you have one of those?)

Pumped storage hydroelectricity has been a thing for decades.

It works really well, though it's not very environmentally friendly, and it's very dangerous - the worst power plant accident in history was at Banqiao Dam in 1975, 26,000 people were killed and six million lost their homes (which makes Chernobyl look like a damp squib).

The real problem with it, though, is that all the suitable sites have either been taken, or are being used for more valuable purposes (such as having cities built in them).

There simply are not enough suitable sites for such schemes to cover the storage demands of a mostly intermittent generation (ie wind and solar) grid.

 

[Elixir]

The real problem with it, though, is that all the suitable sites have either been taken, or are being used for more valuable purposes (such as having cities built in them).

You could put it at the North Pole and let it run down gravity feed hydro lines all over the planet, all the way to the South Pole!
Can you imagine the pressure by the time it gets to Australia?
But again, if you have nukes why bother?

Seriously, I hope for the success of the Aurora powerhouse (a fast neutron reactor built at the Idaho National Laboratory) and that it becomes the Model T of off grid power supply.

 

[bilby]

Seriously, I hope for the success of the Aurora powerhouse (a fast neutron reactor built at the Idaho National Laboratory) and that it becomes the Model T of off grid power supply.

Liquid fuel (molten salt) fast-spectrum reactors are the obvious next step, not least because they can run on the spent fuel currently stored in dry casks at existing power plants. Liquid fuels avoid pretty much all of the operational risks associated with solid fuel reactors - they can't melt down, because they are already molten.

I am very impressed with the Molten Chloride Salt Fast Reactor (MCSFR) design from Elysium Industries. Ed Phiel clearly knows his stuff.