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A coal power station without the coal! How 'WIN-WIN' solutions could save an industry.

Just Have a Think

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Coal fired power stations are being retired in record numbers all over the world as we move towards more sustainable energy. But the huge turbines in those facilities provide essential inertia to maintain grid frequency, so losing them is a problem. Wouldn't it be great if we could get rid of the coal and carbon dioxide emissions but keep everything else? Well, now we can...

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20 Comments

@Erik-pu4mj 2 years ago

Turning coal plants into high-efficiency thermal battery sites. That's rather genius, and I very much look forward to progress on this front!

@theamaturepro 2 years ago

Finally a reasonable idea that actually makes sense.

@d.p.2680 2 years ago

Really good news for a change, i'm from Denmark, we don't use cooling towers, we use radiators and hot water to consumers, only in summer there's a little use for extra cooling, and we use the ocean for that.

@richardcooper1806 2 years ago

Now all we need is a sustainable source of graphite. Luckily, we're already making graphite from woodwaste a process that actually sequesters more carbon than it emits at Stora Enso and CarbonScape. Maybe a topic for a future episode.

@Azuroth 2 years ago

What I love about this is that we could have had this decades ago. None of the tech here is some advanced material science discovery, the delays on this has all been a way to push back on clean energy. Love it here!

@trueriver1950 2 years ago

One more advantage of this system is that where a generating complex has multiple generators, this can be installed incrementally, keeping one (or more) generator burning coal for the very occasional times when that part is needed.

Basic economics will ensure that the coal powered unit will not be run most the time, when cheap solar is going begging for use.

@Pecisk 2 years ago

I like simplicity of the system, it feels very engineer driven solution and I like it. Also getting into India is definitely right approach there. Will follow with interest.

@jonjohns8145 2 years ago

An Additional benefit if you use this in place of a coal boiler is you no longer have to deal with the Ash and sludge that is left over when you burn coal. No more retainer pools of Coal sludge that can burst their banks and contaminate local ground water.

@KF1 2 years ago (edited)

That's actually pretty smart. And if one bank can do 4 hours, all you need to do is daisy chain a small few together for times of day when the renewables are inactive.

@AlbertEBlake 2 years ago

I always love your videos, one of the best channels on YouTube!

@ElkoJohn 2 years ago

Much obliged for this video update

@LuciannaG123 2 years ago (edited)

This could make a lot of people very happy.
Thank you for giving us hope.

@wendyholt5158 2 years ago

This is brilliant, totally makes sense and keeps jobs. Let's hope we see this soon

@bbasmdc 2 years ago

Here in Nottingham we are about to decommission the largest coal fired plant in Europe - Ratcliffe on Soar. They are saying it will be the site of a fusion plant at some point (maybe 40 years from now...that's always been how far into the future fusion is since I were a lad). While we're waiting for usable fusion maybe they could deploy this system to make use of all the wind energy the UK is going to be generating.

@michaelkolozsvari3575 2 years ago

Can't wait for follow up in 12-18 months!

@1locust1 2 years ago (edited)

Lithium should be reserved only for vehicles and small devices. Thermal storage. gravity storage and Cheaper sodium/ion batteries are the way to go for our static power storage needs.