Diversifying means getting energy from different sources like wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and from different regions as there wind always blows somewhere. This is a major strength of the European grid.
Storage mainly happens in pumped hydro, but for short term storage you can also use batteries and flywheels.
On the demand side, energy intensive industry like steel can draw its energy when there is an glut of energy causing lower prices.
Well, I set myself up for this, didn’t I… 😅 Actually I was kind of hoping for a more specific question, as I would need to respond with a wall of text - and I would like to avoid that as it is kinda rude to force people to read so much and it makes discussion difficult.
So maybe 3 options:
Wall of text
You have a more specific question in mind to rephrase
I try to summarize my wall of text, but I might not get the point across
Lol yes you walked right into that one… Well let me try to meet you half way with some open-ended questions:
What does “stabilize” mean in this context, and are the challenges there different than the challenges with non-renewables like fossil fuels?
What are the biggest bottlenecks for stabilizing renewables, and how surmountable are they? For example, I’ve heard lots of talk about how large-scale battery networks(…?) are important to smooth out capacity for swingy energy sources like solar and wind (i.e. you gotta make sure the power doesn’t go out at night!), but the materials for batteries (e.g. extractable lithium?) are scarce… Or similar concerns about photovoltaic cells. Is there any merit to those concerns? Or are the bottlenecks elsewhere? Or is there no bottleneck at all but Big Oil is conspiring to keep us on hydrocarbons?
What options do we have to stabilize a renewable energy system and make it long term viable?
Diversify, store and adjust demand.
Diversifying means getting energy from different sources like wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and from different regions as there wind always blows somewhere. This is a major strength of the European grid.
Storage mainly happens in pumped hydro, but for short term storage you can also use batteries and flywheels.
On the demand side, energy intensive industry like steel can draw its energy when there is an glut of energy causing lower prices.
Well, I set myself up for this, didn’t I… 😅 Actually I was kind of hoping for a more specific question, as I would need to respond with a wall of text - and I would like to avoid that as it is kinda rude to force people to read so much and it makes discussion difficult.
So maybe 3 options:
Lol yes you walked right into that one… Well let me try to meet you half way with some open-ended questions:
What does “stabilize” mean in this context, and are the challenges there different than the challenges with non-renewables like fossil fuels?
What are the biggest bottlenecks for stabilizing renewables, and how surmountable are they? For example, I’ve heard lots of talk about how large-scale battery networks(…?) are important to smooth out capacity for swingy energy sources like solar and wind (i.e. you gotta make sure the power doesn’t go out at night!), but the materials for batteries (e.g. extractable lithium?) are scarce… Or similar concerns about photovoltaic cells. Is there any merit to those concerns? Or are the bottlenecks elsewhere? Or is there no bottleneck at all but Big Oil is conspiring to keep us on hydrocarbons?