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That's not quite correct. Long term storage solutions are dominated by capital cost. You can use batteries to store electricity from day to night because you recoup part of your capital investment every day for ten years or so. But if you can only sell electricity once a year, then whatever profit you make it better be good, because you only get that 10 times in 10 years. The alternative is to have dirt cheap capital cost. Pumped storage works where the lake and dam already exist, because the capital storage is essentially zero. Everywhere else, nothing works. Batteries don't work, chemical storage (like ammonia or hydrogen) doesn't, compressed air, or molten salt, nothing works. What will work is a way to "cheat". If you can mimic the day-night cycle of batteries and make a profit every day, you win. The way to do that is by long-distance transportation: you make ammonia in Australia, or Morocco, or Saudi Arabia and sell it in Japan, China or Europe. You may incur round trip losses of 80% or more, but if the price you pay for one kwh is one cent, and you sell for 10 cents, you can still make a profit. |