Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems, explains how subsurface pressure storage handles seasonal and long-duration energy storage without critical pressure decay.
Opinion
Sage's subsurface storage is more cost-effective than lithium-ion batteries
“You're using four batteries to achieve that 16 hour duration, whereas ours, it's made really for that longer duration, and so it's going to be more cost effective than the batteries.”
Insight
Turning solar into 24-hour power requires a 16-hour storage discharge duration
“If you're trying to turn solar into 24 hour, you need a 16 hour discharge duration, basically to produce power, you know, between the time the sun goes down to the time the sun comes back up.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sage's grid interconnection feasibility study took 11 months despite shorter estimates
“The feasibility study, in the beginning, we were said, told it, it'll take six weeks, And then we immediately put our application in, and then we were told it'll take six months, and then it ended up taking, like, 10 or 11 months.”
Insight
Grid interconnection queues are artificially inflated by unfunded, speculative projects
“Because the process is so long, different Projects will be put into the queue, even though they may or may not be funded, even though they may or may not, you know, know that they're going to be going forward, and so the queue gets very long, and then projects…”
Assertion Supported
Sage's systems operate deeper than pumped hydro, yielding higher energy density
“So, we actually are deeper than the tallest pumped hydro, which is about 3000 feet. Our depths are eight to 12,000 feet. So we have actually a higher energy density, so the deeper you go, the higher that energy density is going to be because of that pressure e…”
Opinion
The oil and gas industry is equipped to scale geothermal energy
“The oil and gas industry is primed. The infrastructure is there. It's already primed to scale geothermal once the industry, again, is ready to scale. We don't have to wait on new skill sets being built”