This Giant Bubble in Sardinia Stores Energy for the Grid. Here's How.
spectrum.ieee.org
Google is betting big on CO2 batteries to power its data centers with clean energy.

"This giant bubble on the island of Sardinia holds 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. But the gas wasn’t captured from factory emissions, nor was it pulled from the air. It came from a gas supplier… “The facility compresses and expands CO2 daily in its closed system, turning a turbine that generates 200 megawatt-hours of electricity, or 20 MW over 10 hours.”

  • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    23 hours ago

    deal with the fact that we’ll have power outages during sleeping hours.

    let me guess, you live somewhere winter doesn’t exist.

    • amino@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      14·
      22 hours ago

      couldn’t be more wrong, also we have this thing called insulation and water tanks. we already use water loop radiators here, there’s nothing stopping us from preheating the water to last us through the night. also, wear more layers instead of being a wussy

      • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        19 hours ago

        This is not even close to being a general solution. Lots of places do not have water loop radiators and it is not an easy retrofit at all. Lots of people cannot even afford additional insulation for their domicile. Telling the average person “don’t be a wuss” is not a viable strategy to get them on board with supporting green energy.

        Also heat pumps are the most efficient form of heating we have. They work best at a constant low/mid level, not completely shutting off for half a day and having to work extra hard to catch up in the morning.

      • healthetank@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        22 hours ago

        Unless I’m mistaken, hydronic systems like those USUALLY require a pump to circulate the water.

        • amino@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          11·
          21 hours ago

          that is correct and that would unfortunately be a problem if we expect everyone to own a boiler instead of building neighborhood thermal battery/central heating systems. a lot of post-soviet countries had perfectly functioning stations for doing exactly that, but they were torn down during neoliberal reforms instead of converting them to modern standards

          • Chippys_mittens@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            21 hours ago

            Are you saying that if there was a thermal battery in neighborhood you wouldnt need pumps? You know how a fucking thermal battery works? You realize most of the central heating systems you’re talking about heated the water by using coal plants to send super heated steam to them right? Where did you think that hot water came from? You’re an idiot and people like you are part of the reason this goes so slow.