Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
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Notes -
In short, oversupply (but there are other problems as well) and its not limited to Sweden, it afflicts all surrounding countries. Its both a local, national and regional problem. Although there are some smaller areas and projects are profitable where market penetration is low and there are areas where wind could be profitable but the local popu
Newer projects aren't meaningfully less negatively profitable than older farms due in part to lessened subsidizes but mostly due to the underlying problem of oversupply.
Now, what constitutes oversupply? In Sweden about 20% of the electricity currently comes from wind and this in an energy system where 35-45% comes from hydro and effectively constitutes storage for at least parts of the year.
This is as far as I'm willing to engage on this topic at this time, I might make a top level post in the main thread after Christmas if I get time with more information and sources. Everything is public access through company annual reports and the like.
As far as I'm aware no scalable storage is even remotely financially viable, even when it's a byproduct of some other related industry and all non-neglible projects in Europe have been cancelled as far as I'm aware (not that anything got out of the planning stages anyway).
Grid storage may not be economical without subsidies, but a ton of it is nevertheless being built in California and Texas.
My impression is that this is small scale (on a grid level) and intended for high variance energy arbitrage. The same business idea exists in Europe and battery parks are being built.
This cannot scale under current conditions due to the financial viability of the idea depends on extreme variance in spot prices. If battery capacity was to expand beyond a few percent of the grid the profitability would drop through the floor. In this way it's similar to wind it self in that it quickly self cannibalises.
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You’re right that grid scale storage is not very economical, but I was thinking a bit about this: doesn’t Norway have good geography for large scale hydro storage? Basically, dam up the fjords, and pump them high with water.
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Please do, I look forward to it!
Currently, I'm still bullish on wind. I think there's a reason why the Chinese are installing massive new capacity. Also, I've seen forecasts that global Li-Ion production capacity will be 8 TWh next year, several hundred percent percent above demand. If this is true, the bottom will drop out of the market and grid scale battery storage will suddenly become very feasible.
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