Section 02 · 5 pages
After dark
The hours the panels cannot cover.
Every page in this section
- Hornsdale answered in millisecondsThe installation earned its keep less by storing energy than by answering a frequency drop faster than any spinning machine can.
- Where the containers areA battery installation is a yard of containers, a transformer and a fence, sited for the grid connection rather than the view.
- Frequency, and what spinning metal used to doA grid used to be stabilised by the inertia of enormous rotating machines; without them, stability has to be manufactured electronically.
- The hours that matterStorage is not measured in capacity alone but in how many hours it can cover, and the difference between two and eight hours changes what it is for.
- What is not lithiumPumped hydro still holds most of the world's stored electricity, and the alternatives to lithium are chosen for duration rather than density.