When this baby hits 1.21GW, you’re gonna see some serious shit.
Not surprising they’re up on renewables. The last time I drove through Minnesota it was windmills off into the horizon for many miles.
I assume this was I-90 west of Rochester, which is where most of the wind is sited. Sadly it is nowhere near enough and still only produces 25% of the state’s electrical needs whereas neighboring South Dakota and Iowa are over 50%.
Solar and wind have very different potentials in the state. Minnesota is at the Northern terminus of the wind corridor which they take advantage of. However, it is one of the worst states for solar irradiance potential.
Sherco solar replaces 2.4 GW base load coal with a planned 910 MW of solar and only 3 GWh of storage. This comes across as insufficient in a snowy winter in a state where conversion to electrical heating is a must.
I90
Not a scenic drive. If you have to drive through, after dark, this is a good place for it.
If they want people to switch to electric heating in Minnesota then they need to make electric cheaper. Utility costs for most in Minnesota drop significantly compared to summer because it’s far cheaper to heat with natural gas than it is to cool with electric.
Fixing the public utilities commission would be good too.
Some Minnesota utilities do subsidize electricity prices if you heat with it. All utilities provide strong rebates for installing heat pumps.
Even with all of that, gas is still cheaper. I sat down and figured it out because we replaced our furnace last year.
The folks who benefit most from heat pumps are those that currently use propane or electric resistance heat. However, to qualify for those rebates you have to meet certain requirements on an audit which is often harder the older your home construction is.
However, it is one of the worst states for solar irradiance potential.
Eh don’t sweat it. Everyone kept talking how Germany is impossible for solar, far too northerly, yadda yadda…
Today we’re producing more than 20% of our power with solar.
All of the US, with the exception of Alaska is very much more southern than Germany, even MN.
Yes, Minnesota has more solar potential than Germany. However, German electricity is 2.5x more expensive per kWh than Minnesota due to low efficiency decisions like turning off nuclear. This is having severe consequences to industry and those unable to afford to install and run air conditioning.
Solar in Minnesota is >60% more costly per kWh generated than wind. Yes, building solar in Becker recycles the transmission lines and gives a different covariance, but I am skeptical it is cheaper than simply building 100 more wind turbines and battery storage next to them to transmit in times of low generation.
What happens at night? Did they built like 10+++GWh storage as well?
3gwh
Where did you find this info? I found this “Battery storage is planned as well, with as much as 600 megawatts eventually possible if approved” which assuming it’s 600MWh, it’ll provide less than an hour worth of energy. But even 3GWh covers only 4 hours.
@kindtoeveryone in another thread:
The exact figures:
735.5 MW AC 2,942 MWh
Verified from Minnesota PUC and EQB.
Also, overnight you won’t be needing the full output, I would guess. And I’m sure they can draw on other sources.
So it is 3GWh. Better than 600MWh. While the power requirement during nights might be less, it’s still a problem, specially during winter (short days, clouds, heat pumps etc.). And you need to charge those batteries as well which significantly lowers the power output during the day.
You can see California moving to deal with this issue via battery storage:
https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/US-CAL-CISO/live/fifteen_minutes
Pumped hydro is better, but not available everywhere.
I expect sodium-ion batteries to be the main type of storage going forward, but who knows?
Pumped hydro is better, but not available everywhere.
Depending on geography, but yes, it’s rare that you have all requirements for it (hill, river etc.)
I expect sodium-ion batteries to be the main type of storage going forward, but who knows?
These certainly seem like the future. There is also fusion, but it won’t be feasible in near future if ever.
Honestly fusion isn’t worth talking about. The closest fusion has gotten to a viable power plant is Quaise, the geothermal startup that uses a maser (microwave laser) for drilling.
Speaking of which, geothermal might well be the main baseload power plant.
