Image: Grok
Today I was discussing energy sources with a correspondent on X. What started the conversation was a government report which mentioned batteries as a generator.
Not too long ago we had three main sources in Texas. Now we have five. None of them are interchangeable and they all are useful tools for grid operators.
They work together nicely as a system.
The equipment types I mean are:
- Nuclear plants, which go down for a month at a time for refueling.
- Coal plants, which are hard to turn up and down.
- Natural gas plants, of which one style is hard to turn up and down but easier than coal, and the other style which is easy to turn on quickly but is inefficient so the plants usually sit idle just hogging up capital.
- Hydropower, which can be turned up and down but is only located in a few lucky places.
- Solar-sourced electricity, which needs photons for photovoltaics, and varies from a low of no output to a high of so much we don't know what to do with it all.
-Wind-sourced electricity, which needs wind, which works 24/7/365 but varies by geographic location and height above the ground, plus variations in the weather,
-Geothermal-sourced electricity, which runs 24/7/365 but is just getting started as a major source.
- Batteries, which take in electricity when it is most available and inexpensive on the market, and releases electricity when it is most needed and expensive on the market.