this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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[–] scholar@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (49 children)

Sometimes the sun doesn't shine, sometimes the wind doesn't blow. Renewables are great and cheap, but they aren't a complete solution without grid level storage that doesn't really exist yet.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (38 children)

Solar with Battery grid storage is now cheaper than nuclear.

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago (19 children)

If the demand goes up I have some doubt, also, mining for Lithium is far from being clean, and then batteries are becoming wastes, so I doubt you would replace nuclear power with this solution

I guess in some regions it could work, but you're still depending on the weather

[–] Ooops 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

You don't need lithium. That's just the story told to have an argument why renewables are allegedly bad for the environment.

Lithium is fine for handhelds or cars (everywhere where you need the maximum energy density). Grid level storage however doesn't care if the building houising the batteries weighs 15% more. On the contrary there are a lot of other battery materials better suited because lithium batteries also come with a lot of drawback (heat and quicker degradation being the main ones here).

PS: And the materials can also be recycled. Funnily there's always the pro-nuclear argument coming up then you can recycle waste to create new fuel rod (although it's never actually done), yet with battery tech the exact same argument is then ignored.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Density doesn't matter much when it comes to grid scale, indeed.

What battery technologies are you thinking of? Zinc-ion? Flow batteries?

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