Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

That voltage stability is electromagnetically coupled to huge chunks of spinning iron. That's your inertia. It buffers voltage spikes. Solar, and surprisingly enough wind as well, do not contribute to this stability. It's one of the big challenges we need to figure out.



Actually, this is something I'm not clear on: Why can't we just add free-spinning "generators" to the grid to contribute inertia?


Costs money. And, unnecessary.


It's pretty clearly necessary to solve. And any kind of energy generation costs money. So I don't think that, unqualified, those are good reasons.


Free-spinning wheels generate no energy. Electronics do the job much cheaper.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: