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this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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What almost everyone seems to miss is it's absolutely optimal situation to overbuild and waste electricity. Sometimes it's just not worth storing, until demand exceeds a lot it's not really worth storing large amounts.
Also HVDC currents.
Rather than waste the electricity, could we not put the excess towards energy-intensive but time-insensitive projects like direct-air carbon capture, green hydrogen production, or desalination of seawater?
At some point it has to be wasted. No one is going to built something that will use the last 1 hour of energy in a year that isn't assigned to anything.
Most factories have a stable running value. I.e. when they run they run at 100%. Capital is wasted when that investment isn't making money. So to have something that can absorb all excess is very difficult.
There will be some projects that ramp up and down. But it would be low capital cost high energy cost and I'm not sure what they would be. There might be some projects that also run for 6 months of the year. But even then I still see some waste happening