The Energy Transition and technologies

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Interesting. I hit up Google to try to learn more about Drake Landing and this was one of the top search results which doesn't sound very encouraging.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ture-1.7148389

Water as a thermal energy store isn't a great option outside of home hot water heaters

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

It's actually incredibly energy dense. It varies a bit, but roughly 1 m² per 1MW which is very good. They're also quite modular and can placed outside with proper transfer medium and lines

Is there potential for residential use under a driveway and/or garage? I imagine the point would be to have it really well insulated for efficiency sake, but if some heat leakage is inevitable it would be a nice second stoned bird.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Regorium

Why doesn't Alberta do some demand shaping via time of use pricing like Ontario?

It seems like a very easy way to make our electricity cheaper and also drive some interesting storage innovations.

ATCO is testing time of use in Grande Prairie (or was planning to test it). There will need to be a pile of back office testing that will need to take place as well.

In order to do this, most customers will need new meters which won't come cheap. The distribution utilities won't need to change everyone over at the same time, but it will take a while to change over every delivery point.

Why do you think it will make electricity cheaper? I haven't seen anywhere suggesting that would be the case.

[bootsnixon]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Water as a thermal energy store isn't a great option outside of home hot water heaters

I believe Drake's Landing only uses water as the medium to move the heat energy. I think the thermal battery is sand.

I was disappointed to hear they made the news with problems in their system. I've not found too much info but it seems like it's the solar thermal collectors and the plumbing system that is having problems. I believe the thermal battery is still working fine. It should be noted this is a 17 year old system. Maintenance and/or rehabbing might not be newsworthy.

This is pure speculation but I wonder if this is more of an issue with who is having to pay for the renovation. Similar to the problems condo associations face with exterior work like fencing and parking lot paving.

I would love to hear if anyone knows more about Drake's Landing and their system. I contacted them last year to have a tour but was told they weren't doing them at the time. Anyone live there?

I think low temperature thermal batteries have great potential in Alberta's climate and could lessen the load on the power grid as we move to more electrical use. Drake's uses air handlers in the home that achieve COP in the 30's. That's incredible! I think if adapted in new residential and commercial construction, the payback period could be quite attractive.

The higher temp thermal batteries are also enticing in an industrial setting.

[btimbit]

Wasn't it essentially just a test run anyway? I was under the impression it was always the plan to transition it to natural gas in 15-20 years anyway.

I know nothing on this subject, just used to live one community over and swear that was a thing

[Azure]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Interesting. I hit up Google to try to learn more about Drake Landing and this was one of the top search results which doesn't sound very encouraging.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ture-1.7148389

I'd imagine this will be common with anything solar over 20-30 years.

Any energy system needs to be up kept.