Thread

1. jmyeet · 1791106138 · focus · HN ↗

   I've been thinking about this (more [1]) and I do believe smaller grids will be the future for many reasons. I guess this is another reason. But the transition from large grids to small grids has no obvious, easy path because a large grid without total market saturation falls apart as maintenance is averaged over fewer and fewer users.

   One side benefit though is that it would stop utilities being able to push data center costs onto consumers, something that regulators and governments thus far seem completely unwilling to do.

   Oh and distributed infrastructure and leadership (the so-called "mosaic defense") is (yet) another reason why the Iran war was always unwinnable from the start.

   [1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49902903">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49902903

   1. thelastgallon · 1791106899 · focus · HN ↗

      Indeed. The future is off-grid and community level mini&#x2F;micro grids.

      There is no need to build&#x2F;maintain transmission network.

      Legacy grid is production in far away places, miles and miles of transmission, then a distribution network. The distribution network built for homes is sufficient for homes to participate in grid for redundancy. All buildings can produce energy. Rooftop is proven. Next is vertical solar-- which adds ~4 hours of production. EVs become a storage reservoir and supply power back to the grid (V2X). Add some BESS if needed.

      Villages in developing countries (half the population in Asia, Africa) can go completely offgrid. Start with plugins, slowly upgrade to bigger panels. No transmission network needed.

      1. pfdietz · 1791113469 · focus · HN ↗

         A key enabling technology for this is long term thermal storage, which I&#x27;ve been emphasizing here. It is claimed to work on a scale of ~100 kW or higher, storing heat at 600 C with losses less than 1% per month and capex of $0.10 per kWh-th of storage capacity. This is very well suited for isolated microgrids.

         1. thelastgallon · 1791116865 · focus · HN ↗

            Thats terrific! The plug-and-play layer of storage is plug-in batteries (as an extension of plug-in solar: if you can supply power from solar, you can also supply from batteries)

            The first layer is storage is EVs, which is inevitable. EVs have humongous batteries.

            Next layer, add thermal storage.

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