Tony “Abolish ICE” Arcieri🌹🦀California is "bending the duck curve" with batteries:
Grid batteries reach stunning new peak of 44 pct of evening demand in world’s fourth biggest economy
Linus Gasser@bascule can we make a website everybody needs to visit before using words like "capacity" and "power"?
Or do I need to accept that capacity now is measured in watts?
@ligasser nobody is misusing words here. The word “power” doesn’t even appear in my post or the article. It’s talking about instantaneous supply and demand which are appropriately measured in watts.
Are you getting nuke bro brain?
@ligasser seriously though, who looks at an exciting article like that and has something negative to say? I know, nuke bros, because sour grapes
> More than 90 per cent of California’s battery fleet has been built in the last five years, lifting total capacity to more than 17 GW from just 1.3 GW in 2020, according to Ember analyst Nicolas Fulghum.
Anyway, definitely no nuke bro here. Just a smartass with some solar panels on top of his roof and who calculates twice a year if batteries are finally worth it... So I prefer my capacity in Jules and not watts :)
@ligasser the capacity is actually the important figure here for evening generation, because it's what's required to meet evening demand.
It's the y-axis on that chart.
@bascule OK, it's nitpicking. But in order to correctly compare comparable values, I think we should get used to follow a common way of defining what is happening:
- Power, [W], as the instantaneous delivery, like litre/s for a waterhose
- Capacity, Energy, [Ws], [Wh], [Jules], as the reserve in the system, like litres of water
Both are important - one to fulfil the instantaneous need, one to hold to it as long as possible. And I hope both will increase so we can ditch non-renewables!
@ligasser that’s not how capacity is typically used when describing power generation. It’s “generating capacity” which is measured in watts (or GW, in this case). You’re talking about the amount of total generated energy, which is (G)Wh and friends.
For the grid to work, you need a grid with a generating capacity which is capable of meeting demand (also measured in watts) at all times.