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Europe is locking itself in to US LNG

(davekeating.substack.com)
151 points hunglee2 | 4 comments | 16 Sep 25 13:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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jsnider3 ◴[16 Sep 25 14:08 UTC] No.45262472[source]▶
Renewables solves this.
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probablypower ◴[16 Sep 25 14:17 UTC] No.45262574[source]▶
This is confidently incorrect.

Gas power generation is a necessary evil to balance out the variability of intermittent energy generation (i.e. wind and solar).

Hydropower isn't a feasible alternative because the easy resources have been developed.

The only alternative source of flexibility available today is demand side response.

Edit: I appreciate the down votes, as I've not explained in detail. It is a complex issue. My opinions are based on having a phd in the topic, 10+ years in control rooms, years of market operations and design, and years contributing to europe-wide risk assessment methodologies.

I emplore anyone who is actually interested in how energy mix actually impacts grid stability/reliability to look into the Eirgrid DS3 programme (https://www.eirgrid.ie/ds3-programme-delivering-secure-susta...).

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lukan ◴[16 Sep 25 14:21 UTC] No.45262624[source]▶
What about large quanzities of batteries everywhere around europe?

If prices continue to drop, there will be a powerwall alike in every second house in some years.

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1. probablypower ◴[16 Sep 25 14:38 UTC] No.45262876{3}[source]▶
This is an insane suggestion if you had a concept for how expensive batteries are and the scale of flexibility issues on the european grid.

It also does nothing to help transmission grid frequency stability and control.

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2. dorkypunk ◴[16 Sep 25 14:56 UTC] No.45263177[source]▶
Could pumped-storage batteries help in that case?
3. lukan ◴[16 Sep 25 16:10 UTC] No.45264179[source]▶
Batterie prices are falling constantly and grid sized battery production has not even started. The focus was and is mobile batteries.

So expect prices to drop further.

Also yes, batteries help very much with grid stability as they can give steady power on demand anywhere. Have lots of batteries everywhere == lots of on demand grid stabilizers.

4. 8note ◴[16 Sep 25 21:50 UTC] No.45268602[source]▶
> It also does nothing to help transmission grid frequency stability and control.

they dont help grid stability via inertia of spinning masses, but PLLs and the like exist, where you can control frequencies and phases without a spinning mass.

you dont need to burn gas to have a flywheel either