chin-ki-chaddi t1_iwxqcuo wrote on November 19, 2022 at 3:45 AM

Reply to comment by artemistica in US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds, but tough reliability and land use questions lie ahead by nastratin

Thermal batteries will lose out to flow batteries or even old lead-acid batteries. Too many steps to charge/discharge such batteries, to many losses at each step. Thermodynamically, not the best strategy.

ArcFurnace t1_iwxsulf wrote on November 19, 2022 at 4:08 AM

Sodium-sulfur batteries aren't thermal storage, they're just electrochemical batteries that need to be kept at high temperature (easy enough with a well-insulated tank, and it gets easier as you make them bigger).