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Thermal Energy Storage Is No Longer Just Hot Air (spectrum.ieee.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The thing is that efficency doesn't matter too much if this energy used is from intermittent sources like wind or solar and if there is too much energy at this moment and not everything can be used. So it is better to safe energy at lower efficiency than not saving anything at all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes and no.

Better store than loose energy.

But the choice isn't between heat storage+conversion and no storage. It's between differents type of storage (heat, chemical, gravity, electrolysis, freewheel), with multiple technology and chemistry to choose from for each type.

Since there's many options to choose from, it make sense to compare overall efficiency and cost.