Austin Vernon
@Vernon3Austin
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Trying make cheap industrial energy storage. ⬇️ I write a blog about energy and technology
Joined June 2021
RT @salmon_mckay: The cheapest possible battery, literally made of dirt. An order of magnitude cheaper than any other thermal storage idea,….
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Storing natural gas is nearly free, 1000x cheaper than batteries per kilowatt-hour. Solar PV needs storage that cheap. I'm leading Standard Thermal to do this. Our testing over 2 years has overcome some of the biggest barriers, so I wrote about it.
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How rich is America? US chicken producers have required air conditioning for their broilers since the mid-2000s. High rate ventilation and evaporative cooling pads reduce the death rate and improve weight gain. Chickens in the US have more AC than Europeans and many others.
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RT @_brianpotter: My book, "The Origins of Efficiency", is now officially available for preorder.
construction-physics.com
I’m happy to announce that my book, The Origins of Efficiency, is now (officially) available for preorder, and will be released on September 23rd. You can preorder on Amazon, Stripe, Barnes and...
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RT @salmon_mckay: The Savor dream is so big. We’ll get so much land back from oil crop monocultures it’ll be like we discovered a new conti….
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Historically demand response or virtual power plants haven’t had great uptake. Seeing a program goal increase 7x is jarring. Batteries probably playing a big role.
NRG Call highlights:. -New Data Center Power Agreements: NRG announced a 295 MW long-term retail power agreement with a data center operator, with 10-year initial term and 20-year extension options; at premium margins above the midpoint of their target $70-$90/MWh range; the deal
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My monthly natural gas bill is 10% higher for 10+ years because of the prices during a few hours of this storm. That would suggest there was not a lot of extra capacity in nearby states.
"A severe cold snap in 2021 froze up many coal- and gas-fueled power plants in Texas, causing a huge blackout. Oklahoma and New Mexico next door had plenty of spare power, but because they were part of another grid they had no way to send it quickly where needed.".
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Are Volcanoes a Risk to Solar Dominated Grids?. The answer seems to be no because solar capacity will be overbuilt and the dimming effects of SO2 are sub linear. Net solar output would only be affected for a few percent of hours, like a cold winter.
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The Outsize Impact of AI Logistics. Automated logistics will impact 1/3 of US GDP. It lowers the fixed costs of transportation, allowing movement point-to-point in smaller vehicles. Cost and time can drop like a rock. Humans will benefit immensely!.
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RT @elidourado: There is no "abundance store" you can stroll down to to buy abundance. So how are we actually going to get to an abundant f….
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RT @_brianpotter: This week on Construction Physics: how batteries are making the electrical grid more reliable.
construction-physics.com
To operate reliably, the US electrical grid needs to balance supply and demand: to make sure, at any given moment, that the amount of electricity demanded by homes, businesses, and factories is equal...
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LFP is the most cost-effective way to build 18-hour or even 100-hour batteries.
The new grid storage battery cell that CATL unveiled last week is about twice the size of a typical lithium-ion battery cell. Now Hithium has started manufacturing one that's double the size of the CATL grid storage battery cell. The significance is that lithium ion is
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I’m pretty sure we will get a 1-2% one time GDP boost just from AI forklift drivers not damaging things all the time.
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MAKE AMERICA BOOM AGAIN
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I learned recently that grid forming inverters are much easier with batteries than standalone solar or wind. Cost premium is minimal. Even higher fault current can be affordable. Synchronous condensers are probably already obsolete.
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How Indianapolis Birthed the OKC Thunder. The year is 1991. Oklahoma City and Indianapolis are in a heated competition for a United Airlines maintenance hub. OKC offers slightly more incentives, but United execs tell the city that their employees couldn't imagine living in.
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RT @_brianpotter: A common criticism of solar PV is that large-scale use will require lots of extra power plants to pick up the slack durin….
construction-physics.com
In the US solar energy has steadily risen in how much of our electricity it supplies.
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