This seems really cool if this can be done at scale

See, I was a huge solar fan/renewable fan except but then I watched the infamous michael moore video and I had sort of concluded that either we need to focus on nuclear since I have this only grudge against the documentary that it didn't depict nuclear energy.

But overall, the conclusion of that documentary was that solar might not be the right approach given its storage mechanism and that batteries might be net negative overall the way they might be used right now

And that it might lead to more net negative emission even compared to Coal etc. (or comparable)

Seeing this, I feel like this can atleast be a very huge boost into not using batteries and building systems that only require land with less maintanence overall. Like, I can imagine a solar farm with solar panels and communities can build them in vacant land and then they build the system proposed in the article and then basically have more solar panels than the consumption or just enough to store them into such a system and then lets say that a stormy weather comes or rainy seasons comes or something or winter comes and then we might be able to push the energy from the reservoir.

This might be more efficient compared to using batteries or having more solar panels in the first place and "wasting" excess solar energy in the summers if lets say that we overprepare ourselves with a lot more solar panels (which seems to be the current approach) without using batteries.

Now to be fair, the author does propose that he likes batteries. I wonder if I can change that but I myself can be wrong too (I usually am), and so maybe we can discuss it! I wonder, how this system without batteries might work though.. like how are we gonna prepare for night without batteries completely, like maybe we can have a system where we can shift to the grid in the night?

Now although I will be honest, I feel like using the grid at night doesn't make sense but I am assuming here that michael's moore's video is right (which it is) and that the current way that batteries are used is more carbon emissions in the context of solar right now

Then this system that I was talking about doesn't include batteries and such might be atleast definitely better for the environment overall.

But that being said, I am still not a big fan of solar compared to nuclear. I feel like nuclear is one of the best things.

I wonder if we can actually have a nuclear reactor which can create energy and then send it to such communties and then they can store it in their ground and (its efficiency seems to be 50%) which might be actually good considering how atleast to me nuclear genuinely feels like unlimited energy and thus I was genuinely thinking of a cheap way to store energy, this isn't definitely portable but I feel like that communities can build it economically and so maybe countries with nuclear energy can setup lines with other countries and all that nuclear energy straight up goes to the community which stores it in such land and then they might actually use solar too and rely on this too and just store a ton of energy as much as it makes sense economically and then maybe combine this with solar and then use that nuclear energy at winters or if it turns out to be economical even at nights.

Now why I am saying this? Because this feels like a completely clean method. Now although I like nuclear energy a lot, I feel like a lot of countries can't access nuclear energy as they can't build it because if they can, they would've made bombs and its hard and they can't rely on other countries which have unlocked it for their power because that's a geopolitical disadvantage

but just using it for storing energy at scale might make true sense since it isn't that big of a priority and even if some nuclear power lets say denies them, then maybe they can go back or go to other nuclear power without their infrastucture being completely reliant or essentially melting because of some other countries decision and they still have autonomy which can make it a lot more viable

Overall a net win win situation imo. Makes me a little bit more optimistic.

> But that being said, I am still not a big fan of solar compared to nuclear.

This technology, if it works, is a bullet in the head for any remaining chance for nuclear. It provides heat at a cost competitive with natural gas, and natural gas is what destroyed the nuclear renaissance here in the US.