In 2021, the Grohnde nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony on the Weser River was shut down. Now, immediately next to it, the Emmerthal energy cluster is growing with three very large battery storage systems, ground-mounted photovoltaic systems, and a new substation for several 380-kilovolt high-voltage lines.
What would also be great: Solar power produces a surplus of energy on summer days, and summers are becoming hotter. One can use seasonal heat storage and bidirectinal heat pumps to cool buildings and store that heat, and use it to heat homes in the winter. Seasonal storage turned out to work well.
How would you store the heat/convert to electricity?
Personally, for long term storage, I’m more a fan of simple solutions because they scale better, such as using the excess electricity to pump water up a hill, then using generators in the winter to convert it back to electricity (pumped storage).
Unfortunately, the potential for pumped hydro storage is very small in Germany :/
Not sure if that’s a problem though, the German power grid is connected to many European countries including France, Switzerland and Austria.
Just a large water tank with a thick layer of insulation. Could also be sand or even the ground which is used for some heat pumps.
Hot sand stores a huge amount of heat, and the bigger the storage, the less heat it loses. With modern insulation, even the cheap options, it lasts months. Circulate water or some other fluid through pipes embedded in the sand, and you can introduce or extract the heat.