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Originally Posted by Changing City
Where do you get your information?
Burrard Thermal has been decommissioned for years.
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Yeah, I know it's 'decommissioned.'
BC Hydro is still holding onto it though, and the idea of recommissioning it for its peak role comes back up now and then to support intermittent renewables:
https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/277...-of-discussion
Also, it's still semi-operational by BC Hydro (though not producing power).
If we go fill wind + solar, that plant is going to eventually have to be fired up again for peak loads.
Quote:
Grid battery systems don't necessarily use lithium, and they're generally not intended to 'store large amounts of power'. There are examples of big systems already built around the world, and there are several new technologies being developed. Sodium batteries already represent a cheaper alternative to lithium. China has an 800 MW battery farm with redox flow batteries with vanadium electrolyte. Yukon has a 20 MW/40 MW-hour battery being built. Alberta is already adding 300MW of storage related to their solar power generation.
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They're
usually Lithium.
Tech will change, but Lithium is still the best option, and has been for the last 20 years.
It's proven notoriously difficult to take off its throne, since it has a lot of inherent advantages in its chemistry (eg. one of the highest theoretical densities for batteries.)
Also, yeah, they do 2 different things- usually- if you use Wind and Solar.
In BC, we have enough hydro generators that batteries aren't needed.
Other places don't, and wind and solar put such massive pressure on the grid that the ultra-quick power production and storage of batteries are required for grid stability.
Go to mostly hydro-geothermal-nuclear, etc (non-(or at least largely) non-intermittent sources- as we do right now), you don't need those batteries at all.