I doubt aluminum smelting makes sense as an intermittent thing.
This is where people keep coming back to hydrogen. While hydrogen doesn’t make sense for vehicles, or long term storage, it might for time shifting of intense energy uses locally
Right, this is essentially another form of battery. Maybe it’ll work out. It doesn’t require flooding an entire river valley somewhere, so that’s nice.
Yes, we need to stop thinking “battery” and broaden to energy storage as a whole, which can take many more forms (wind up a big coil! Push things uphill!).
I doubt aluminum smelting makes sense as an intermittent thing.
This is where people keep coming back to hydrogen. While hydrogen doesn’t make sense for vehicles, or long term storage, it might for time shifting of intense energy uses locally
Solar—>hydrogen—>aluminum smelting?
Right, this is essentially another form of battery. Maybe it’ll work out. It doesn’t require flooding an entire river valley somewhere, so that’s nice.
Yes, we need to stop thinking “battery” and broaden to energy storage as a whole, which can take many more forms (wind up a big coil! Push things uphill!).