Re: Washing machines and solar panels so far.
Originally Posted by
ericpmoss
El Hierro is on track to be 100% energy independent through wind and solar, with excess stored by filling reservoirs as 'gravity batteries'.
We did that, but for almost the opposite problem. When they built the first nuke plants, this solved the problem of overproducing power at night, because the nukes weren't able to modulate and follow the load. So they pumped the rivers up to the reservoirs at night, and then reversed it to run turbines during the day to meet peak demand.
Bear Swamp went with Yankee Rowe, and Northfield Mountain was paired with Vermont Yankee. The hydro stations will outlast the nukes, interestingly.
Funny how that was seen as a solvable problem back then, but so often now the intermittence of renewables is thrown out as a show stopper.
Trod Harland, Pickle Expediter
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. — James Baldwin
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