Yeah, I've read that blog many times. The author wastes his intelligence by refusing to pursue creative solutions to problems vs just trying to find ways to make the problem unsolvable.
The answer to season storage for solar, for instance, is to make the solar array larger, not to have a nation-sized battery. That means you only need a day or so of battery, not a week or months.
Also, why would you want to eliminate storage? Just like nuclear power, you'd want to use storage at very least to help convert a constant baseload power source into one that can follow day vs night demand. That is ultimately cheaper. And his complaint that batteries might require service? Well first of all he's off by at least an order of magnitude in cycle life, and second of all, yeah, why wouldn't we do a lot of service on batteries like we do on the rest of our energy infrastructure? That's a weird thing to focus on.
As far as material shortages: I find this highly doubtful. Lithium is not fundamentally rare. "Proven reserves" might be, but that is almost entirely a function of demand (provided your mineral isn't fundamentally rare, which lithium isn't). Other metals used in batteries, like cobalt, can be substituted by other more abundant minerals if desired, especially in grid storage. (LiFePO4 is one such chemistry.) That the author of that blog seems to not realize this pretty obvious fact strikes me as naivete dressed as "skepticism."
The answer to season storage for solar, for instance, is to make the solar array larger, not to have a nation-sized battery. That means you only need a day or so of battery, not a week or months.
Also, why would you want to eliminate storage? Just like nuclear power, you'd want to use storage at very least to help convert a constant baseload power source into one that can follow day vs night demand. That is ultimately cheaper. And his complaint that batteries might require service? Well first of all he's off by at least an order of magnitude in cycle life, and second of all, yeah, why wouldn't we do a lot of service on batteries like we do on the rest of our energy infrastructure? That's a weird thing to focus on.
As far as material shortages: I find this highly doubtful. Lithium is not fundamentally rare. "Proven reserves" might be, but that is almost entirely a function of demand (provided your mineral isn't fundamentally rare, which lithium isn't). Other metals used in batteries, like cobalt, can be substituted by other more abundant minerals if desired, especially in grid storage. (LiFePO4 is one such chemistry.) That the author of that blog seems to not realize this pretty obvious fact strikes me as naivete dressed as "skepticism."