| ▲ | Kipters 2 hours ago | |
Why not both? We still need rotating mass to keep the grid stable, which means either building giant flywheels, keep burning gas or bring nuclear into the mix. One of these can also produce a ton of energy when needed, the other two cant. We can and should build more renewables, but we can't risk grid stability! | ||
| ▲ | mrob an hour ago | parent | next [-] | |
It's technically possible to replace rotating mass with batteries using a "grid-forming inverter", which is an inverter that converts the battery DC to AC with frequency varying depending on the grid load, simulating how that rotating mass would behave ("synthetic inertia"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverter-based_resource#Grid-f... This competes with the traditional giant flywheel option ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_condenser ), which has the advantage of being a simple and proven technology, and handling brief overload better, but the disadvantage of having moving parts. It's not clear which option is currently best. Both are in current use. | ||
| ▲ | iknowstuff an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | |
We actually don’t need those anymore. Grid forming inverters and batteries will take over that role. | ||