Quote:
Originally Posted by AussieTrooper
So when the wind isn’t blowing, SA will be almost completely dependent on its connection to the Victorian grid, 90% of which is on one tower line from Heywood (near Portland).
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The shift to renewable energy sources and domestic "micro-power" will require a lot of changes in the grid, besides the obvious ones of decommissioning thermal power stations. Energy storage will be a big issue for solar and wind power, so you can collect it when it's available, and release it when it's needed. Batteries are one solution, but are a bit limited when you're talking about GW.hr scale base-load power.
Pumped-hydro storage is capable of scaling a LOT bigger than battery technology for the foreseeable future. Wivenhoe Power Station in Queensland
http://www.csenergy.com.au/userfiles...ril%202013.pdf can store and release 500 MW of power for about 6 - 8 hours at a time. (That's the equivalent of a 3 GW.hr "battery", with a 6-hour recharge time - just imagine what that would look like as a bank of lead-acid or Li-Ion batteries!) Similar units could be built anywhere that a "small" dam can be built with a bit of head above the main water reservoir - e.g. anywhere around the Australian coast-line.