The EIA breaks this article into the 3 interconnections: Eastern, Western, and Texas. Quote: “”On July 27, 2023, peak hourly electricity demand in the continental United States reached 741,815 megawatt-hours (MWh). This peak was the second highest since we began collecting this data in 2016, just under the all-time high of 742,704 MWh recorded on
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I believe this information is very important – it’s the key to the solution of the renewables intermittency issue. Converting Mines Into Hydro-Powered Batteries “”A PUSH facility can be developed using mature technological systems—materials and machinery—used by conventional PSH. In what they call a conservative estimate, researchers determined the US has capacity for between 137
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This is an interesting idea. It has some major problems. Something similar is already being used: trucks hauling ore mined at higher elevations use regenerative braking to charge their battery coming downhill, which is enough to propel the empty truck up the hill for another load, with no need to charge the truck. There are
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Articles pumped hydro energy storage https://www.freethink.com/technology/why-pumping-water-back-into-hydro-dams-beats-batteries-for-renewable-power?amp=1 Research paper? Downloadable https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2516-1083/abeb5b
California lowers electric sector GHG target, directs procurement of more than 40 GW of clean energy resources The chart with the yearly figures shows 40.55 GW total must be procured by 2032. The utilities must procure 25GW clean energy generation and 15GW storage, while meeting strict reliability standards. Some of this will be pumped hydro.
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They say the problem with battery energy storage is that they say it’s not long-term; for renewables we need long-term energy storage. Pumped hydro has been used for a hundred years. Nothing high tech or no scalability issues. Just dig two lakes, one above the other, with pumps and generators between them. The costs may
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This is an animated graphic of global primary energy consumption by source. Interesting. https://www.facebook.com/TheInfographicsShow/videos/256670979610323/
The US would be much the same. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/28/what-would-australia-look-like-powered-by-100-renewable-energy
Article graphs EIA reports on electricity generated by state. “Small scale solar” is supposed to include rooftop solar. California comes out far ahead with solar. Texas is far ahead with wind. What must be done is get those many lagging states to convert away from coal and to renewables. Some states have very little wind
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There is a lot of power being wasted by pressure reducers in water mains. In this YouTube video Matt Ferrell looks at microhydro- and picohydropower turbine-generators that are powered by the drops caused by pressure reducers in water systems. These are capable of generating hundreds to tens of thousands of watts and recover energy that
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