The BIGGEST problem with clean energy
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To reach our global goal of being net zero carbon emissions by 2050, we must solve one problem - energy storage. Thank you to Toyota for lending us the #Mirai and for sponsoring this series. Scientists, researchers, and engineers are working to develop innovative ways of addressing the intermittency of wind and solar energy. I got to talk to them in part 3 of my renewable energy road trip with Toyota in their #Mirai Previous videos in this series: The Truth about Driving a Hydrogen Car [https://youtu.be/hghIckc7nrY] Hydrogen vs. Battery Electric Cars [https://youtu.be/dWAO3vUn7nw] Upcoming video in this series: Concentrated Solar Creator/Host: Dianna Cowern Editor: Levi Butner Producer: Hope Butner Production Assistant: Laura Chernikoff Story Consultant: Patrick Muhlberger Research: Sophia Chen and Erika Carlson Support Physics Girl https://www.patreon.com/physicsgirl http://physicsgirl.org/ http://twitter.com/thephysicsgirl http://facebook.com/thephysicsgirl http://instagram.com/thephysicsgirl Special thank you to our X-Ray tier patrons: Carlos Patricio, David Cichowski, Eddie Sabbah, Fabrice Eap, Gil Chesterton, Isabel Herstek, Margaux Lopez, Matt Kaminski, Michael Schneider, Patrick Olson, Vikram Bhat, Vincent Argiro, wc993219 Resources: https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/LTS1_RKorea.pdf https://highwaysengland.co.uk/netzerohighways/ https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/beceb956-0dcf-4d73-89fe-1310e3046d68/NetZeroby2050-ARoadmapfortheGlobalEnergySector_CORR.pdf https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050

Disclaimer: this video is sponsored by Toyota.

  • greengnu@slrpnk.netEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Depends on what you mean by a huge problem.

    If you are referring to energy loses due to the large distances and the electrical resistance of the wires carrying that power; you’ll discover those loses are directed related to current and that you can trade current for voltage and trade voltage for current; so we can avoid losses by upping the voltage.

    If you are referring to the fact that the Earth’s crust is moving, we can have geologists do some work; estimate the distances spaces where we will be running our wires and put in sufficient slack to cover the time period until the next maintenance window.

    If you are referring to weather event induced disruptions in the grid (wind/tornadoes/etc taking out power lines) then you build alternate paths to route around damage.

    If you are referring to solar storms and coronal mass ejections, then you need standards in your equipment to deal with out of spec distribution lines.

    All of which are technical problems and easy to solve.

    If you are referring to the bureaucratic hellscape that is international coordination and cooperation, then yes that is the only huge problem preventing such a solution, despite its numerous global economic and environmental advantages.

    • souperk@reddthat.com
      2·
      1 year ago

      I cannot upvote enough, I just heard distance is a problem and I needed a kind stranger (like you) to explain why that’s not a problem.

      Got any references for me to read? I would like to learn more

      PS fuck capitalism

      • schroedingershat@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        It’s not a problem insofar as it costs more than what we are doing now.

        It may not happen because renewables and batteries are on such aggressive cost curves that it may be better to just store energy locally or produce more (and thus generate flexible high energy cost economic activity on top of the current energy demand that can happen whenever).

        Transmission and distribution currently costs in the ballpark of 3-7c/kWh. Longer distances will drive this up. Overnight-scale storage will drive it down (allowing it to run 24 hours a day at x watts rather than 4 hours at 6x watts).

        Solar energy is 1-6c/kWh. Overnight-scale battery is 2-7c/kWh. If you can rearrange your manufacturing so you do the energy intensive bit on a cheap machine on a sunny day and do the labour intensive bit on expensive machines in winter, you won’t consider transmission. If you can’t, you’ll weigh transmission against moving your factory to western australia or morocco or texas. Many processes have a drying or a reduction (removing oxygen with electricity or chemicals made from fossil fuels/electricity) or heating step that fills the first profile.

        End result is there will be a mix with countries that have less seasonal variation having an advantage in industries that are less flexible (because hitting the worst-case load will require less infrastructure), and countries with more seasonal variation having a huge advantage in flexible industries (as their winter heating bills will subsidize the free summer solar). Transmission will play a role too (but how kuch is uncertain).