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41 comments on API Energy IQ Game and Blogger Call

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aviator202 on August 18, 2008 - 1:25am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Here's one point....WE CAN ALREADY STORE ENERGY from SOLAR and WIND!!!!!....I can't believe you can't figure this one out....A percentage of the wind farm or solar farm is devoted to running an electric motor that runs an electric pump that will pump water uphill to fill a reservoir...then when the wind is calm or the sun goes down we have (wait for it)...TAAA DAAHHHHHH !!!! Hydroelectric power!!! Who would have thunk it?????? A SIMPLE and ELEGANT solution!!!!! Psssst!!! Guess what??? In a way, we ALREADY do this!!!...You know, in your hometown, that BIG teal water tower...Maintain city water pressure so you don't need to run electric pumps...GAD, Why can't you guys think of these things???....Sheesh

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joule on August 18, 2008 - 7:35am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

aviator202 -

First, do you have any idea of the required volume and height of a water reservoir capable of storing say 24 hours worth of the output of a 100 MW power plant? Clue, it's pretty damn big. So, that municipal water tower you're talking about could only store a very small amount of electrical energy.

Second, on the premise that it's hardly economically feasible to build mountains and put reservoirs on top of them, exactly how would you go about builing large pumped storage systems in a place with flat terrain, such as Kansas or most of the areas in the immediate vicinity of the Great Lakes?

Of course pumped storage works, but it's feasibiliy is highly location-specific, which is why you don't see that many pumped storage systems.

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x on August 18, 2008 - 9:53am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

To my way of thinking the storage of wind produced electricity is not an issue if wind is given priority in usage. Other fossil fuel, hydroelectric or nuclear facilities should be reduced when there is ample wind available.

The savings in other forms of energy are the de facto storage mechanism.

For example, the water does not have to be pumped uphill, just don't let as much through the dam when wind is available. Then let the saved water flow though the dam when the wind dies down.

Fossil fuel saved by wind is in effect stored wind energy to be used to fire up plants when wind is inadequate or the demand exceeds wind availability.

Nuclear plants are harder to shut down but their out put can be scaled back during high wind availability. The saved nuclear fuel is the stored energy derived from wind.

It's just a matter of looking at things a little differently or maybe from outside the box.

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tuj on August 18, 2008 - 10:18am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"Nuclear plants are harder to shut down but their out put can be scaled back during high wind availability. The saved nuclear fuel is the stored energy derived from wind."

Wrong: you do not throttle nukes. You run them 100% and throttle back everything else, and that includes wind. Base coal gets throttled back to min-load at night, but nukes stay near 100%.

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41 comments on API Energy IQ Game and Blogger Call

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