> So what? As is clearly implicit to the meanest intellect in my comment above these are alternatives that are being built right now after having already passed pilot testing and now being scaled up for grid storage.
No, they are not. They are still in the prototype stages. Gravity storage is still being prototyped. Heated sand is only being used for district heating. If you've got news about a real production deployment of grid storage using these systems, I'd be eager to read it.
> and use the excess to produce green hydrogen, ammonia, methonal [sic], etc to buffer nighttime demand
If we find a feasible way of doing these things. These storage schemes are theoretically possible, but as of yet they are not demonstrated to be viable at grid scale. The reason why most of the talk is around batteries is because they're the most viable storage option at the moment. Will one of the systems you listed deliver much better grid scale storage? Maybe, maybe not.
If your point is that intermittent sources are viable contingent on an energy storage breakthrough, then yeah I'm in agreement. But it's not exactly wise to bet the future of your electrical grid on a technological breakthrough that may or may not happen.
No, they are not. They are still in the prototype stages. Gravity storage is still being prototyped. Heated sand is only being used for district heating. If you've got news about a real production deployment of grid storage using these systems, I'd be eager to read it.
> and use the excess to produce green hydrogen, ammonia, methonal [sic], etc to buffer nighttime demand
If we find a feasible way of doing these things. These storage schemes are theoretically possible, but as of yet they are not demonstrated to be viable at grid scale. The reason why most of the talk is around batteries is because they're the most viable storage option at the moment. Will one of the systems you listed deliver much better grid scale storage? Maybe, maybe not.
If your point is that intermittent sources are viable contingent on an energy storage breakthrough, then yeah I'm in agreement. But it's not exactly wise to bet the future of your electrical grid on a technological breakthrough that may or may not happen.