Is it possible to harvest and store enough solar in summer to carry you through winter?

[sunshine_eggo]

Alright you unimaginative bastids... it's fricken easy. All you need is a buttload of water, surplus power, a hydrogen generator (use electricity to make hydrogen), a hydrogen processing facility (collection and pressurization), a hydrogen powered generator (burning hydrogen to make electricity), and enough cylinders to hold hydrogen at 5000psi to cover your needs.

The energy content of hydrogen at that pressure is 767kWh per cubic meter. Assuming about 35% efficiency in conversion you need 1 cubic meter of compressed hydrogen for every 268kWh of consumption.

Easy peezy.

 

[time2roll]

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[Ampster]

.....do batteries not hold charge for long enough for it to be feasible?

Lithium batteries hold charge for years. The issue is how much energy do you need to store. In my case my winter loads are greater than my summer loads and I use the grid as a battery. Last March I would have needed a 2,000kWh battery to store my summer production to get through the winter. At $150 per kWh that would be an investment of at least $300,000. Your mileage may vary depending on your consumption pattern.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Lithium batteries hold charge for years. The issue is how much energy do you need to store. In my case my winter loads are greater than my summer loads and I use the grid as a battery. Last March I would have needed a 2,000kWh battery to store my summer production to get through the winter. At $150 per kWh that would be an investment of at least $300,000. Your mileage may vary depending on your consumption pattern.

That's probably cheaper than a hydrogen generation station...

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

If you can use the excess Summer time solar to create a fuel for winter it can be done.

Many good replies. This one is thinking outside the box. Bravo!

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

That's probably cheaper than a hydrogen generation station...

Plus those little bastids are always trying to sneak out when pressurized. At least that's what NASA claims. I think the lizard people steal them at night.

 

[fmeili1]

We need a cheap (and maybe DIY) way to produce Green Methanol (e-methanol) out of solar.
Power-to-Liquid for seasonal storage may be the only way (until someone invents a cheap battery with 100x more capacity density than today).
Like this - but it's a bit ambitious for DIY

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

We need a cheap (and maybe DIY) way to produce Green Methanol (e-methanol) out of solar.
Power-to-Liquid for seasonal storage may be the only way (until someone invents a cheap battery with 100x more capacity density than today).
Like this - but it's a bit ambitious for DIY

Many farmer/rancher types use composting to generate circulating heat and methane for combustion generators.

 

[45North]

Like how we grow crops in summer to take us through winter can the same be done for solar or do batteries not hold charge for long enough for it to be feasible?

I know you could do what my mum does with the solar on her roof and sell solar back to the grid and buy that back again but that does not apply here as I am talking about self sufficiency.

No.
Battery storage doesn't work the same as potatoes and they cost a lot more.

 

[45North]

Alright you unimaginative bastids... it's fricken easy. All you need is a buttload of water, surplus power, a hydrogen generator (use electricity to make hydrogen), a hydrogen processing facility (collection and pressurization), a hydrogen powered generator (burning hydrogen to make electricity), and enough cylinders to hold hydrogen at 5000psi to cover your needs.

The energy content of hydrogen at that pressure is 767kWh per cubic meter. Assuming about 35% efficiency in conversion you need 1 cubic meter of compressed hydrogen for every 268kWh of consumption.

Easy peezy.

You forgot to add in the cost of fire insurance.
Remember the Hindenburg!

 

[OffGridForGood]

Food:
A laboratory standard human requires 2,000 calories per day input to live and work.

Food energy is measured in KILO calories. (Sorry).
We just get lazy and call them "calories" because it is easier to say.
If food calories were not KCal you could lose a massive about of weight just by drinking a few glasses of ice water per day.
So in your example, a human requires 2,000 K-Cal per day, ie 2,000,000 calories.

 

[Zwy]

Like how we grow crops in summer to take us through winter can the same be done for solar or do batteries not hold charge for long enough for it to be feasible?

I know you could do what my mum does with the solar on her roof and sell solar back to the grid and buy that back again but that does not apply here as I am talking about self sufficiency.

Why? The sun comes up everyday and it doesn't, we have big problems.

Not that it shines everyday and can be harvested. That is what batteries or grid storage is for.

I plan on using the sun as an endless resource.

 

[OffGridForGood]

If I lived near a big mountain, with two lakes, one up high, and one down in a valley, that would provide a nice way to store some energy.
But I don't.
So I use trees to collect solar energy, and then I cut them down, cut boards from the large lower sections, cut fire wood from the tops and slabs from milling. The property grows more wood per year than I burn, so I will never run out. That is my winter solar energy storage system. In fact it is also my weight control system but that is another topic!

 

[stienman]

Food energy is measured in KILO calories. (Sorry).
We just get lazy and call them "calories" because it is easier to say.
If food calories were not KCal you could lose a massive about of weight just by drinking a few glasses of ice water per day.
So in your example, a human requires 2,000 K-Cal per day, ie 2,000,000 calories.

Aw! My high school chemistry teacher would be yelling "REMEMBER TO WRITE THE UNITS CORRECTLY AFTER EACH NUMBER".

Weeeell, adjust all my numbers by 1,000 in your head(s), I don't have time to fix it now.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Geothermal

 

[sunshine_eggo]

In fact it is also my weight control system but that is another topic!

I need one of these.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Geothermal

how does one generate their own geothermal reservoir?

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

In my case, I need at least 4000kwh of battery to make it thru the winter. At 50kwh / 2nd EV battery (maybe Nissan Leafs), that would be 80 of these. There's a guy making github (free) software that can activate/communicate with multiple Nissan Leaf packs 'as is' - no disassembly required.

So, I can see a container and a forklift and a supply of used EV batteries.... and it would work in terms of cycles. It's only 1 cycle per year - so used, low capacity EV batteries would (in theory) be up to the task.

However, being in the city, I can't get past the energy potential to destroy my entire neighborhood - not just my own house. So that reality is where I hit a brick wall... sigh...

 

[OffGridForGood]

so in reality, couldn't do it with good conscience.

but out in the Sticks, with no neighbours for miles around...

 

[Danke]

Why? The sun comes up everyday and it doesn't, we have big problems.

Not that it shines everyday and can be harvested. That is what batteries or grid storage is for.

I plan on using the sun as an endless resource.

I find the moon more valuable than the sun. It gives us light when it is dark out.