Fire Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fire District said at this point, most of the fire had gone out. A water-based mitigation system did not work as designed, Vistra's senior director of community affairs Brad Watson said at the conference. Earlier in the day, a Monterey Sheriff official had said there were no active fire suppression efforts going on, "as the best approach, according to fire staff, is to allow the building and batteries to burn."

Yeah, I think massive chemical batteries for storing excess electricity to facilitate a contrived green energy market is a bad idea.

  • 22hp4maa@lemmy.oneEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    Clearly, storing steam in tanks for demand surges is the most efficient form of energy storage (as in Factorio)

      • 22hp4maa@lemmy.oneEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Yeah, that’s probably true. I was mainly being silly and making a factorio reference. On the other hand, with the intermittent/cyclical nature of renewable energy, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to look into ways to store it for times when demand outstrips supply. Maybe there’s something I’m missing? I’m not an expert in energy grids or anything.

        • CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.workOPEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          Yours is the third reply to me that makes a Factorio reference over the past month. I didn’t realize it was a game until yesterday. I guess I should give it a try.

          You’re correct that intermittent power from wind and photovoltaic solar needs to be managed somehow. There are certain energy intensive, productive processes that can be conveniently ramped up or slowed down to meet this requirement. I just think such a system would be more responsible and less exploitative than building these massive battery facilities for speculating on the electricity supply.

          Your half-joking idea of converting excess electricity to steam makes sense because steam is itself a useful product that’s needed for heating buildings as well as various industrial processes. Converting it back into electricity isn’t ideal, but that’s all you can do with a chemical battery in comparison.