Tesla's design of a renewable grid for USA

[GregLocock]

https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/Tesla-Master-Plan-Part-3.pdf

Headline figure 120 TWh of storage, or 36 kWh per capita. Most of that is hydrogen (!?)

Power is generated via 1971 GW of onshore wind 64 GW of offshore wind 3052 GW of solar 99 GW of nuclear (it assumes no new nuclear) and 152 GW of hydro. This generates an average of 481 GW. This means the storage needs to be 250 hours, which is rather more than I estimated for the UK (60 hours).

So per GW, for comparison with the simple challenge, 5 GW of onshore wind, no offshore wind, 6 GW of solar and 250 GWh of storage. So they are (even) more pessimistic than me.







Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[rb1957]

what on earth does 120TWh of storage look like ??

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[TugboatEng]

With today's technology, a 1MWh battery fits nicely in the space of a 40ft shipping container.

The largest containerships holds 24,000 TEU.

120TWh worth of storage would occupy 10,000 of such containerships.

There are 50,000 ships of all sizes in operation today.

 

[rb1957]

and a mountain of copper wire joining them together !
and lord knows how much rare earths !!??

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[GregLocock]

Each 4 person family would need 16 Tesla Powerwalls.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[waross]

I thought that 24,000 TEU equalled 12,000 40ft containers.
Why do the containers have to be on ships?
That will make an installation in Denver challenging.

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[TugboatEng]

It was meant to be a visualization. There are commercially available 1MW batter packs and they are packaged in 40ft shipping containers. For land based installations, the racking system of a containerships would reduce the footprint of a battery farm and promotes serviceability as faulty modules can be simply lifted out and transported by truck.

Yes, 24,000 TEU is 12,000 40 foot units.

 

[hokie66]

They have to be on ships until they are offloaded from China.

 

[TugboatEng]

Yes, considering the quantities of these batteries that will need to be constructed the 40 foot module is going to be standardized.