[Iwan-Zotow]

> Renewable energy storage is a solved problem, with a number of techniques already in use.

mmm... could you name a most significant one?

> But the idea that somehow energy experts are slapping their foreheads thinking 'OMG how did we miss this' is slightly insulting.

well, let me remind you how this conversation started - coal production is GROWING. Not because someone is just evil, but this is what customers demand - reliable supply of cheap electricity

[Arnt]

Where I come from, the hydroelectric plants are run partly according to the price. There are rules, the rivers can't be dry, but as far as permitted, the operators let the water flow when the price is high. Much of the weather forecasting is paid for by that; the power generating companies model electricity demand for the coming hours and days.

Where I live right now, the farmers are building things like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/20... The green things are more or less balloons, because it pays to store the gas until peak time and burn most of it then.

[Iwan-Zotow]

> Where I come from, the hydroelectric plants are run partly according to the price. There are rules, the rivers can't be dry, but as far as permitted, the operators let the water flow when the price is high. Much of the weather forecasting is paid for by that; the power generating companies model electricity demand for the coming hours and days.

yeah, the only problem is how to apply this model to, say, south of US - California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada etc. Not a lot of hydro around

> The green things are more or less balloons, because it pays to store the gas until peak time and burn most of it then.

not sure how it is applicable to electric storage