this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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If the excess energy cannot be stored, it should be used for something energy intensive like desalination or carbon capture.
Heck pumping water uphill for all I care. The more potential energy the better.
Many places actually do pump water uphill into reservoir lakes for hydroelectric dams. In that case it is a form of energy storage, a literal water battery.
Unfortunately, it's not always a feasible option. For instance, in the great planes there's not much of an uphill to pump the water to.
Make hydrogen?
I've seen some interesting ideas from Low Tech Magazine - one that I found particularly interesting was flywheel energy storage. Take a heavy disk or drum and spin it up with excess electricity, then discharge the spin from the battery when the Sun goes down.