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Comment by peanut-walrus | Hacker News Reader

The solar output for Nordic countries during the winter is basically 0. Which is a massive problem, because winter is also when you need the most energy.

During the summer, Nordics are already at solar capacity with electricity prices often dropping negative.

So basically you are producing electricity when it is already abundant and making nothing from it and not producing anything when it is actually needed.

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This is why it makes sense to synthesize methane in summer, when electricity is super abundant, to use it in winter when energy is most needed.

Methane? Ammonia? Hydrogen? Molten salt? Sand battery?

What are the options for dwellings of various sizes for the unusual situation at extreme north latitudes ?

They do not live in isolation, >99.99% of the residential homes are connected to the national grid. They can still use hydro, wind, nuclear, and so on.

As for energy storage, for example: I am personally looking at a ground thermal unit which can store heat in the ground during the summer and cool the home at the same time. This stored heat can then be extracted for an increased COP during the cold months thereby reducing energy usage per degree of heating.

Is this any different from a heat pump that has a ground loop ?

Lots of pumps do not have the built-in functionality to do that natively (they need to bypass the heating element as I understand it).

There are add-ons such as https://thermia.com/products/accessories/cooling-module/

> During the summer, Nordics are already at solar capacity with electricity prices often dropping negative.

I expect air conditioning to remedy this. It's already July-in-May here in Hellsinki.

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