Posts Tagged by Frank Eggers
Energy Storage Vital To Attaining High Penetration for Renewables
| May 7, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Energy Storage |
Frequent commenter Frank Eggers is right as rain with his comments on my recent solar thermal piece in which he writes:
Superior (technology) would not solve the problem resulting from the fact that the sun is not always shining. …. Instead of concentrating only on the solar generation of electricity, 2GreenEnergy should also cover power storage systems without which solar power would remain impractical, (including) batteries, water pumped to a higher elevation, air compressed into underground caverns, flywheel storage, storing heat in tanks containing a mixture of KNO3 and NaNO3.
Thank you, Frank. While we try to cover storage technologies to some degree, there is no doubt that we could always do a better and more thorough job. And this subject will be increasingly important as the penetration of renewables grows over time. At under 2% (the current penetration rate), I really think it’s fairly meaningless. But yes, as we get into the teens and higher, it will be vital — and it’s never too early to start addressing the problem.
I believe you’ll be interested in this month’s free webinar, featuring Dr. David Doty, an extremely senior physicist whom I’ll be interviewing on this very subject. He has a unique approach and capability in synthetic (liquid) fuels that I find compelling. I hope you’ll agree.
Related posts:
Replacing Fossil Fuels — by Guest Blogger Frank Eggers
| July 11, 2010 | Posted by FRE under Fossil Fuels |
Introduction
Although this paper has been written primarily to deal with energy concerns in the United States of America, much of the information will be useful for other countries also.
Regardless of whether we are concerned about global warming, we know that burning fossil fuels damages the environment and causes health problems. Therefore, we should be working diligently to develop alternative energy sources to end our dependence on fossil fuels. Moreover, we should be sure that those alternative energy sources are capable of ending our dependence on fossil fuels and not simply reducing the amount of fossil fuels which we use. To do so, they must be capable of providing continuous power 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
The proposed alternatives to fossil fuels include wind energy, solar energy, and nuclear energy. Hydroelectric power is also useful, but I am excluding that because we have already developed practically all of our available hydroelectric sites here in the United States. When considering alterative sources of energy, we should also consider what would be practical in countries outside of the United States since sources of power which would be practical in the United States may not be practical elsewhere.
To be able to understand adequately the challenges of developing alternative sources of energy, we must have an adequate understanding of how our current sources of energy operate. Accordingly, I shall begin by explaining some of the operational details of coal, gas, hydroelectric, and nuclear power plants. After that, I will explain the advantages and disadvantages of wind and solar power. That will facilitate a better understanding of the challenges of integrating wind and solar power with the existing sources of power. Then, I will explain why nuclear power is probably the only source of energy that can economically and reliably provide the large amounts of power required by an industrialized world. Last, I shall address the problems of eliminating the use of petroleum to power our transportation system.
Current Sources of Electricity
