A massive battery fire in California could cast a dark shadow on clean energy expansion

[petter1@lemm.ee]

I heard it, the boats knicked in half, because they were made for river but crossing the sea (i think semi legally). One could say Russia was forced to do due to sanctions.. Not that I would be against sanctions, just saying.

[petter1@lemm.ee]

Is it the same fire?

[gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de]

The biggest problem with batteries is that people think that we need them.

What we need is for big consumers (heavy industries) to learn to take the electricity when it is cheap.

[werefreeatlast@lemmy.world]

Yeah. And I mean, yesterday we removed our Christmas tree sacrifice and I put it in our wood burning chimney. PNW. Dude, that pine tree was so dry that it burst into flames immediately. I freaked out for a sec. So if you got a battery plant and it's in the middle of a big ass fire and it doesn't burn on the first 24hrs, that means you did something good.

[golli@lemm.ee]

I have to disagree with that, because this solution isn't free either.

Asking them to regulate their use requires them to build excess capacity purely for those peaks (so additional machinery), to have more inventory in stock, and depending on how manual labor intensive it is also means people have to work with a less reliable schedule. With some processes it might also simply not be able to regulate them up/down fast enough (or at all).

This problem is simply a function of whether it is cheaper to a) build excess capacity or b) build enough capacity to meet demand with steady production and add battery storage as needed.

Compared to most manufacturing lines battery tech is relatively simple tech, requries little to no human labor and still makes massive gains in price/performance. So my bet is that it'll be the cheaper solution.

That said it is of course not a binary thing and there might be some instances where we can optimize energy demand and supply, but i think in the industry those will happen naturally through market forces. However this won't be enough to smooth out the gap difference in the timing of supply/demand.

[cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de]

Pumped hydro is much better than battery storage, but it's only possible if you have the correct geography for it.

[gordonbrightfoot@discuss.tchncs.de]

I work in Energy storage. Pretty much all new plants are outdoor in shipping containers, placed far enough apart with venting and deflagration panels to limit any particular thermal runaway from affecting the whole plant.

There are definitely other concerns, but fires aren't.

[sorgan71@lemmy.world]

I think the bigger issue for clean energy is how many poor nations rely on fossil fuel engines and what have you. Do we force them further behind the rest of the world? Or do we pick up their slack? I hope its the latter but idk.

[reyali@lemm.ee]

I’ve also seen the concept of weighted cars on tracks that move uphill during the day then fall at night. (Probably a horrible description but that’s the best my brain can do right now.)

[reattach@lemmy.world]

Bravo - very well reasoned response.

[notastatist@feddit.org]

For real, the people just accept oil tankers spilling around, but nobody pays a shit.