The executive summary clearly acknowledges that "it [the NZ battery project] aims to address an element that neither the market, nor policy or regulatory measures, are likely to solve on their own – the large-scale, long- term, and highly uncertain dry year problem."
The executive summary clearly acknowledges that "it [the NZ battery project] aims to address an element that neither the market, nor policy or regulatory measures, are likely to solve on their own – the large-scale, long- term, and highly uncertain dry year problem."
Will better regulation save a bit of water? Sure.
Will it save enough to deal with NZ's unique dry year problem? Not even close.
How do we deal with the dry year problem at present? We light the fires of thermal, whenever we like. At least we did, until we started running out of gas - now we're having to de-industrialize too.
How do we deal with the dry year problem when thermal has been replaced with intermittent renewables? Terawatt hours worth of batteries! Overbuilding in the extreme!
We could explore the storage options tabled for further investigation by the project (link in my other post, nothing easy about those either), or we could drastically simplify our lives to live with an energy reduction (most sustainable, but impossible by choice). The most likely scenario I believe is we gradually build intermittent renewables backed up with imports of more gas/coal to keep the place civilised, and wait until the technology for NZ's unique energy security/storage/risk use case emerges at a viable price point and scale before we cut the fossils.
The executive summary clearly acknowledges that "it [the NZ battery project] aims to address an element that neither the market, nor policy or regulatory measures, are likely to solve on their own – the large-scale, long- term, and highly uncertain dry year problem."
Will better regulation save a bit of water? Sure.
Will it save enough to deal with NZ's unique dry year problem? Not even close.
How do we deal with the dry year problem at present? We light the fires of thermal, whenever we like. At least we did, until we started running out of gas - now we're having to de-industrialize too.
How do we deal with the dry year problem when thermal has been replaced with intermittent renewables? Terawatt hours worth of batteries! Overbuilding in the extreme!
We could explore the storage options tabled for further investigation by the project (link in my other post, nothing easy about those either), or we could drastically simplify our lives to live with an energy reduction (most sustainable, but impossible by choice). The most likely scenario I believe is we gradually build intermittent renewables backed up with imports of more gas/coal to keep the place civilised, and wait until the technology for NZ's unique energy security/storage/risk use case emerges at a viable price point and scale before we cut the fossils.