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0 pointspfdietz5y ago0 comments

If we plug in Brazil (2011 weather data, 2030 cost model) into

you get very good prices in a 100% renewable system. Mostly solar, with hydrogen backup (although this doesn't take into account Brazil's hydro resources which could make things even cheaper.)

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matheusmoreira5y ago· 1 in thread

Hydrogen for energy generation? I've never seen that. Does it provide on-demand power generation like fossil fuels? If so then that's pretty awesome, I bet it's even better than stuff like coal. Not really educated about it though.

Also I'm not talking about energy prices. I'm talking about the reliability and predictability of the overall system. Hydroelectric power here in Brazil is constantly threatened by lack of rain. Solar power is threatened by long periods of cloudy weather. Every time it happens it shows up all over the news. I remember it happening a fes years ago.

I'm not saying these energy sources are not good. They're awesome. The problem is they depend on climate so we can't always count on them. Gotta have the ability to burn some kind of fuel to compensate. If hydrogen works as a renewable fuel then it'd be great!

pfdietzOP5y ago

Hydrogen for energy STORAGE. Yes, it could be used in turbines like natural gas currently is. The key observation here is that backing up the grid with turbines is not that expensive. A simple cycle gas turbine power plant is just a few percent of the capital cost of a nuclear power plant of the same output. Combustion turbines are amazing! So, we have stacks of turbines that are needed when there's no sun or wind and the short term storage has run down, burning hydrogen produced with excess renewable power when there's plenty of sun and wind. If the levelized cost of the renewables is sufficiently below that of nuclear then nuclear optimizes out to zero.

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