This was a great conversation, as you also explored some of the history around it.
One thing to point out / pumped hydro is NOT the only grid-scale storage option - Germany has two large compressed air energy storage facilities (e.g. 200MW (Adele in Saxony Anhalt, commissioned 2013) and 321MW (Kraftwerk Huntorf in Lower Saxony, commissioned in the 1980s I believe))
They are limited (at least initially) because you need salt caverns - but that's usually where old gas fields are, so the infrastructure pretty much already exists (or could be created by leaching salt caverns, which is what was done for Huntorf). Certainly they could be created rather fast, as could more gas storage, if political will were there....certainly more easily than finishing onshore LNG regasification plants.
Excellent, The expert proofing my feeling when I listen to your average Green party politician to be true, they really have no idea how anything works!
Also, Noah Rettberg has done some great segments on the Decouple podcast about the ...shortsightedness and bad policy decisions regarding shutting down German nuclear plants, which I have found really interesting.
Absolutely fascinating - last two minutes reminds me of Canada, pretty much the same!
This was a great conversation, as you also explored some of the history around it.
One thing to point out / pumped hydro is NOT the only grid-scale storage option - Germany has two large compressed air energy storage facilities (e.g. 200MW (Adele in Saxony Anhalt, commissioned 2013) and 321MW (Kraftwerk Huntorf in Lower Saxony, commissioned in the 1980s I believe))
They are limited (at least initially) because you need salt caverns - but that's usually where old gas fields are, so the infrastructure pretty much already exists (or could be created by leaching salt caverns, which is what was done for Huntorf). Certainly they could be created rather fast, as could more gas storage, if political will were there....certainly more easily than finishing onshore LNG regasification plants.
Excellent, The expert proofing my feeling when I listen to your average Green party politician to be true, they really have no idea how anything works!
Also, Noah Rettberg has done some great segments on the Decouple podcast about the ...shortsightedness and bad policy decisions regarding shutting down German nuclear plants, which I have found really interesting.