The Pacific Ocean is a bit of an exageration here.

There isn't a single battery this big today, but if batteries continue following the exponential growth curve they've been on then there probably will be in the next decade or so (if not sooner).

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noosphr 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There's a bit of a difference between 'some batteries' and at least five times the size of the largest battery ever build.

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nicoburns 15 hours ago | parent [-]

There is, and "some batteries" is an under count, however:

- The ratio between "some water" and "the pacific ocean" is a lot higher than 5

- On an exponential growth curve, a factor of 5 isn't all that much.

This probably isn't feasible for a data center being built today (although they could build solar to at least reduce their fossil fuel power generation needs during the day). But it probably will be for data centers being built in 5-10 years time.

Basically it's important to differentiate between "we can't quite do this yet" and "we'll likely never be able to do this". And powering a data center with rewnewables+batteries is definitely in the former category.

	▲	konschubert 15 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You will always use gas for cloudy days or maybe in winter. I didn’t claim solar should be the sole source of power.

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nmbrskeptix 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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