The great news is that battery storage installation plans have drastically accelerated within the last year, as gas demand increased and battery prices plummeted. Whenever you read an article protesting the energy investment plans of your local utilities, it’s worth checking to see if the plans have already been switched to batteries in the last few months.
> In 2019, New York […] codified some of the most aggressive energy and climate goals in the country, including 1,500 MW of energy storage by 2025 and 3,000 MW by 2030. In June 2024, New York’s Public Service Commission expanded the goal to 6,000 MW by 2030.
https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Energy-Storage-Progr...
The alternative is large grid scale batteries, like Tesla’s ultra packs or whatever, right? Has anyone studied what the impact of large scale battery installations would be?
Yes, Texas and California have actually done it so the results are there to be studied:
https://blog.gridstatus.io/ercot-hot-streak-cold-winter/
> ERCOT set new records in load, net load, solar, prices, and battery discharge within a few days, let's explore the data.
https://blog.gridstatus.io/batteries-ercot-ancillary-service...
> For most of their tenure on the ERCOT grid, batteries have largely made their bones supplying ancillary services as opposed to energy, but that is beginning to change.
https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-batteries-apr-2024/
> Batteries have taken a huge leap forward in CAISO this spring, shifting from a noteworthy trend into a major force impacting operations of the grid
https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-beats-the-heat/#batteries-e...
> Since the last challenging stretch in CAISO, battery storage has expanded dramatically. Last week, batteries discharge peaked from ~5 to ~7 GWs on each day. In 2022, the peak day was around half of that 7GW value, while most days throughout the week peaked well under 3 GW.
Batteries, yes, or peakers run on clean e-fuels. The latter has lower round trip efficiency but potentially lower capex.
> The latter has lower round trip efficiency but potentially lower capex
Lower capex, but massive opex since clean e-fuels are incredibly expensive and AFAICT not on a fast path to getting cheaper, unlike batteries.
Ah, but if run at very low capacity factor the cost of fuel is not very important. Batteries handle most of the stored energy throughput, but the e-fuel backup provides most of the storage capacity. Think of it as like the relationship between cache memory and slower RAM: the combination performs better than either alone.
Reminder that Cuomo closed Indian Point...
How would a nuclear power plant help with managing peak demand?
It supplies the base better while letting higher variable generators take over. Anything plus 10 is more than the anything you started with.