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Comment by _heimdall | Hacker News Reader

That will be a tough game to chase long term as batteries need to be removed and replaced regularly. Assuming the storage capacity needs continue to grow, CA would need to replace larger and larger stocks of batteries on the scale of 5-15 years depending on what kind of warranty the battery manufacturers are providing.

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Batteries don’t have to be the traditional ones we use and think of.

They can be things like pumping water up a hill and releasing it to spin a turbine or using rocks storing heat.

The storage capacity can be added, it’s just don’t going to be banks of lead or lithium batteries

And for lithium batteries, maintaining an overcapacity drastically increases the lifetime by reducing the depth of the cycle. e.g., you get vastly more cycles at %50 DoD vs %80. This would increase the lifespan to be many decades

California isn't exactly known for water management practices, though sure there are storage systems that use kinetic potential as a battery. In theory that can be used at very large scales, if the water and elevation is available for use.

Is be really curious how the math works out with regards to how much water would be required for say 3 days of use in LA. That may even be an over estimate of storage needs given how few rainy days they get.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) makes it extremely difficult to build new pumped storage facilities. It's possible in principle but will take many years to get through the construction permits and inevitable lawsuits.

California is already planning a giant off-river reservoir that will be dependent on pumping to fill. If it could be set up to kick in instead of curtailment it could be a win win.

That is assuming all batteries are lithium-ion, but the state is going for a larger mix of storage tech.

As just one example, iron-air batteries:

> The CEC is supporting this project through its Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) program, a fund dedicated to accelerating the implementation of non-lithium technologies offering 8+ hours of energy storage. Form Energy will use the grant funds to develop and operate the project, and PG&E will provide land and an interconnection point at the substation site.

https://formenergy.com/form-energy-awarded-30m-grant-from-th...

Stationary storage is a different ballgame, with different trade-offs

i.e. you can trade density for cycle count or cost

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