On 11/02/2013 23:09, Tim Streater wrote:
In article ,
Andy Champ wrote:

On 11/02/2013 15:42, Tim Streater wrote:
Could do what the Aussies are supposedly planning: use the daytime
PV to
melt salt at 500-600C, use the heat stored there for nighttime leccy
generation. Of course they are not doing that on a house by house
basis,
but possibly rather more efficiently in stations that generate about
300MW each (IIRC). That goes towards removing the major stumbling block
for renewables: intermittency.

Solar power makes more sense out there anyway. If your major use is
aircon on a hot, sunny day...

They have the land, and the reliable sun. If they can't make it work, no
one can. It's certainly not worth doing in Europe, for all harry's b/s.


I'll elaborate.

Over here our major domestic power use is for heating. This tends to be
required at night, and in cloudy weather.

Over there the major requirement is for air conditioning. This tends to
be on sunny days.

It's just as intermittent over there, but it's available exactly when
you need it most, instead of exactly when you don't.

Andy