Pumped storage like real-estate purchases is about Location, location, location. There are other promising gravity based storage systems that are not as location restricted. IMO
Am I Insane?
Why do I always do this: pick a challenge and show how ridiculous it is to solve the problem by a monolithic approach? Maybe I’m the one being ridiculous!
This tendency is a reflection of my quest to understand how we might face the tremendous energy challenges ahead. The first step is always to assess the potential of a solution relative to the full-scale demand. If it wipes the floor with an excess capacity, then great: it is inarguably a no-brainer go-to solution. If it comes up short, that’s very informative too.
Yes, a diverse portfolio of a half-dozen inadequate solutions may be able to add to an adequate solution. But a half-dozen woefully inadequate solutions cannot pull off the same stunt. So far, my quest keeps turning up the woefully inadequate type. The scale of fossil fuel replacement is so daunting that we very quickly get into trouble when putting numbers to proposed solutions.
1[Am I Insane?] Probably. We'll will get to that later.. You apparently like to waste time searching for solutions that do not exist.
2[Maybe I’m the one being ridiculous!] Searching for a "monolithic solution certainly is rediculous. Its obvious to most of us that there isn't one.
3[The first step is always to assess the potential of a solution relative to the full-scale demand]
Why must the solution be monolithic? You have not properly defined the problem to be solved.
4[The scale of fossil fuel replacement is so daunting that we very quickly get into trouble when putting numbers to proposed solutions.] If your solution must be monolithic, there is no solution. You must change the proposed solution, because the problem as you have defined it has none.
1[Am I Insane?] If you believe the contemporary definition of insanity, then yes. Stop doing the same thing while expecting different results.
The article demonstrates there is no one perfect solution, yet apparently you (the author) do not realize that is the most important point you can make. Discounting all potential solutions because no one solution will solve the entire problem in one go, yes, that is ridiculous.
