• CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    Yeah, large-scale power plants have an efficiency of maybe 55%. Small scale heat engines are pretty hard to make work better than 30%.

    Storage with solid weights is probably competitive with this. Hopefully someone figures out a low-cost grid battery.

    On the other hand, if you’re running an electrically-heated concrete furnace, this is great. You heat when electricity is plentiful and coast for the rest of the time.