Then what will be used for grid-scale storage if not batteries and hydroelectricity?
> And as has been pointed out numerous times, no existing alpine lake is needed for hydro storage. And, the site does not need substantial "transportation infrastructure". Dozens of hydro dams, still in use, were built in California's Sierra Nevada mountains in the 1920s via roads a car cannot use.
Such as? How did they get heavy machinery to these dams to build them? All of the dams I can find like the Shasta dam, Orville dam, etc are in fact close to major transportation infrastructure.
The Sabatier process has significant blockers to actually being used: First, it needs a source of carbon dioxide, and the small concentration of it in he atmosphere is insufficient. Biofuels could be used for this, but they aren't produced in sufficient quantities. Second, it needs a source of hydrogen. Almost all hydrogen produced today is done through steam reformation, which emits carbon dioxide. Electrolysis accounts for a slim minority of hydrogen produced today, mainly due to inefficiency and issues with electrodes corroding. Nobody is operating commercial power to gas storage facility, it's only prototypes.
Commercial power-to-gas facilities are in operation in Germany, but large scale investments make little sense right now. The money is better spend in increasing the supply of renewable energy, or electrifying things that currently burn fossil fuels. Days where we have too much renewable energy are very rare still. It would be a waste to turn it into Hydrogen.
I agree: nobody is fooled by your baseless claims that we can build dams where there's no transportation infrastructure. How does heavy machinery get to the site? How does the concrete get poured?
You insist the dams high in the Sierra Nevada range of California don't exist? You choose a strange hill to die on: anybody can see them in Google Maps satellite view.
They are not generally made of concrete, not being deep enough to need it. Their high pressure is confined in the penstock well downslope.
Earlier you claimed it was trivial to find these inaccessible dams. You took the time to respond to my comment, and could have easily taken the trivial step of finding a few of these dams but curiously chose not to. Or, maybe these dams don't exist.
No such inaccessible dams exist, and if they do they hold an inconsequential amount of hydroelectric energy. Just exercise a modest amount of reasoning: no transportation infrastructure means all work is done by hand and all material transported manually as well.
Pre industrial dams did exist, but they were very shallow and used for irrigation rather than power. Moving enough earth and concrete to make a usable gradient is not possible without heavy machinery.
> And as has been pointed out numerous times, no existing alpine lake is needed for hydro storage. And, the site does not need substantial "transportation infrastructure". Dozens of hydro dams, still in use, were built in California's Sierra Nevada mountains in the 1920s via roads a car cannot use.
Such as? How did they get heavy machinery to these dams to build them? All of the dams I can find like the Shasta dam, Orville dam, etc are in fact close to major transportation infrastructure.