Using pumped storage schemes to mitigate load-shedding

[Daniel Puchert]

An answer to South Africa's load-shedding problem is right in front of us

South Africa is facing a unique challenge: balancing its energy demands with its sustainable development and environmental goals.

Yet, Professor Marco van Dijk and Dr Louis Coetzee from the University of Pretoria's (UP) Department of Civil Engineering believe that the country can effectively meet these demands with the help of pumped storage schemes.

 

[r00igev@@r]

Lovely! Lets eat.

 

[JustAsk]

Jeesus fcking christ...enough with all this BS.

There is no electricity problem. Just put those units back that's been in hostage for years. That's all that needs to happen, but the over lords that force this clean energy kark on countries won't let it.

Every time there is "loadshedding" it is man made.. units that is taken offline to create a shortfall.

Now this idiots suggest extra pump storage while the over lords have you believe that you need loadshedding to fill up the tiny pump storage you currently have...effectively create more loadshedding for you.

 

[RaptorSA]

Jeesus fcking christ...enough with all this BS.

There is no electricity problem. Just put those units back that's been in hostage for years. That's all that needs to happen, but the over lords that force this clean energy kark on countries won't let it.

Every time there is "loadshedding" it is man made.. units that is taken offline to create a shortfall.

Now this idiots suggest extra pump storage while the over lords have you believe that you need loadshedding to fill up the tiny pump storage you currently have...effectively create more loadshedding for you.

Not going to judge you for day drinking.
It was a rough week and it's Friday after all.
Cheers!

 

[Bliksis]

Little Benedict better hope they don't catch on to COCT's Steenbras scheme. Can't have good ideas being spread around.

 

[Abe53]

If there is not a mountain close by, but perhaps a disused mine:

Chinese consortium building 1.2 GWh compressed air energy storage project

A state-backed consortium is constructing China’s first large-scale compressed air energy storage (CAES) project using a fully artificial underground cavern, marking a major step in the technology’s commercialization.

www.pv-magazine.com

I wonder if one could use jet aircraft engine technology?
Well developed technology to efficiently compress air and to get energy back?

 

[3WA]

Electricity has been severely constrained since 2022 and yet people have been happily churning out babies, as if they can’t figure out that more people will use more electricity. To solve load-shedding, just triple the tax on anyone who had a baby from 2022 onwards until Eskom is debt free.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Electricity has been severely constrained since 2022 and yet people have been happily churning out babies, as if they can’t figure out that more people will use more electricity. To solve load-shedding, just triple the tax on anyone who had a baby from 2022 onwards until Eskom is debt free.

We should adopt the Chinese 1 child policy with regressive tax hikes beyond that.

Would solve the problem very quickly.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Electricity has been severely constrained since 2022 and yet people have been happily churning out babies, as if they can’t figure out that more people will use more electricity. To solve load-shedding, just triple the tax on anyone who had a baby from 2022 onwards until Eskom is debt free.

To be fair to them, there's not much else to do of an evening during load shedding.

 

[KleinBoontjie]

Barely enough water to drink, but ja.
Why can't they build a power station that run on methane? Can get an endless supply of methane from everyone talking kak the last few months.

 

[Irene Cows]

We should adopt the Chinese 1 child policy with regressive tax hikes beyond that.

Would solve the problem very quickly.

As far as i know they stopped the one child policy.

End of the Policy:
In 2015, the Chinese government officially ended the one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children.


Current Policy:
In 2021, China relaxed the policy further, allowing couples to have three children.

And if it up to Musk, we all have to start f|_|cking like rabbits to produce offspring (Rabbits do it only in position so I guess it will become boring after a while. But then again Musk started the Boring Company) After quoting I saw you are toxic bunny hope I didn't offend you with the boring part

 

[Mirai]

We should adopt the Chinese 1 child policy with regressive tax hikes beyond that.

Would solve the problem very quickly.

The problem is that multi child families often don't pay PIT because they're often below the threshold or living on grants.

And punishing people who are better off and have more kids, when those kids are likely to be educated well and good for society, is not so good either. I dunno.

The obvious solution I think is that gov has to sit down with the people and tell them that belts have to be tightened, sleeves have to be pulled up and SA has to try to do what South Korea or China did.

Good personal ethics.
A discipline of hard work.

 

[Mirai]

As far as i know they stopped the one child policy.

End of the Policy:
In 2015, the Chinese government officially ended the one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children.


Current Policy:
In 2021, China relaxed the policy further, allowing couples to have three children.

And if it up to Musk, we all have to start f|_|cking like rabbits to produce offspring (Rabbits do it only in position so I guess it will become boring after a while. But then again Musk started the Boring Company)

China is the world's factory. They actually need labour. And they need more young people.

SA does not need so much labour for the time being given that nobody wants to invest here and our labour is not as attractive as labour in Asia.

That should be changed.

But to change that, SA should become an attractive location for manufacturing and so on.

So people can invest here. And build stuff here.

But to achieve that, many policies would have to be modified or would have to end.

Unions would have to be weakened.
Crime would have to be reduced.
Investment restrictions would have to be abolished or modified.

 

[Irene Cows]

A discipline of hard work.

No I rather receive a grant, free housing, electricity and if I need fun I toy toy and in my spare time I produce offspring which is hard work

 

[Mirai]

No I rather receive a grant, free housing, electricity and if I need fun I toy toy and in my spare time I produce offspring which is hard work

Then Uncle Ramaphosa needs to sit you down and explain the facts of life to you.

You see, there is this law of the conservation of energy. Perpetual motion does not exist.

 

[leon.davibe]

We should adopt the Chinese 1 child policy with regressive tax hikes beyond that.

Would solve the problem very quickly.

And they are having a problem with the effects of that policy now

Sure it was a good policy in some ways

As long as we don't make the same mistake they did , scale It back up to 2 after x time

 

[Bliksis]

And they are having a problem with the effects of that policy now

Sure it was a good policy in some ways

As long as we don't make the same mistake they did , scale It back up to 2 after x time

So many rules, regulations and laws that work elsewhere will never work here.

How would a law like this even be enforced here? What's stopping someone who already barely has money, from having more children? It's not as if taxing them will make any difference.

 

[TrueSeeker]

Jeesus fcking christ...enough with all this BS.

There is no electricity problem. Just put those units back that's been in hostage for years. That's all that needs to happen, but the over lords that force this clean energy kark on countries won't let it.

Every time there is "loadshedding" it is man made.. units that is taken offline to create a shortfall.

Now this idiots suggest extra pump storage while the over lords have you believe that you need loadshedding to fill up the tiny pump storage you currently have...effectively create more loadshedding for you.

Just because you don't believe clean energy is high priority, environmentally and economically, doesn't mean that everybody else feels the same.

On top of that it's already cheaper and easier to scale. I don't know if you noticed, but even coal supply is not easy to scale. The best coal isn't even reserved for our own use. It's earmarked for export. So, not only can it not be guaranteed that there will be adequate coal supply for any additional active plants, but the quality of the supply is in question. Not to mention that there's always massive corruption around coal supply in SA. Which often includes targeted vandalism of the transport infrastructure. Which is itself costly AF. Even without the latter, It's not cheap either. A large coal power station can have coal supply contracts that run into the billions a year.

And then the politics. Fossil fuels harm our politics, and the same in many countries.

 

[konfab]

Just because you don't believe clean energy is high priority, environmentally and economically, doesn't mean that everybody else feels the same.

On top of that it's already cheaper and easier to scale. I don't know if you noticed, but even coal supply is not easy to scale. The best coal isn't even reserved for our own use. It's earmarked for export. So, not only can it not be guaranteed that there will be adequate coal supply for any additional active plants, but the quality of the supply is in question. Not to mention that there's always massive corruption around coal supply in SA. Which often includes targeted vandalism of the transport infrastructure. Which is itself costly AF. Even without the latter, It's not cheap either. A large coal power station can have coal supply contracts that run into the billions a year.

And then the politics. Fossil fuels harm our politics, and the same in many countries.

Your clean energy solutions are not that much better as it low in energy density, meaning you need much more materials involved to get a a unit of energy out. And they don't scale, because you need vast amounts of land and energy infrastructure to hook it up.
Rooftop solar makes somewhat sense, but that won't be enough for industry to use.
Germany for example is collapsing because they decided to go all in on renewables, by turning off their coal and nuclear stations, then getting cut off from Russian gas.

Their economy is finished.