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invisiblesock t1_iqt32y2 wrote

Reply to comment by RonPMexico in The US's largest ever combined wind+solar/battery electricity plant has opened in Oregon with a generating/storage capacity of 350MW/120MWh by lughnasadh

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today's grids contain large amounts of capacity that's seldom used. this includes peaker plants, which have terrible efficiency.

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RonPMexico t1_iqt4252 wrote

I would argue the excess capacity is exclusively made up of peaker plants. I'd be interested in where you got the terrible efficiency data from.

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invisiblesock t1_iqxngj8 wrote

>I'd be interested in where you got the terrible efficiency data from.

most peaker plants use single cycle gas turbines, which have fairly low efficiency. it's usually in the low 30s for newer plants depending if the plant has heat exchangers to cool the incoming air.

there are also peaker plants that use reciprocating engines, these ones have even worse efficiency.

standard combined cycle gas thermal plants have a second cycle that uses the waste heat from the first cycle to increase the efficiency; in this case it's between 40% and 60%.

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