<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>jlawer</author><text>It makes we wonder if something like the Australia-Asia power link would make sense. 2.2GW would be enough to cover current Gas, Coal and Diesel generation for NZ. With sufficient storage (Batteries, Pumped Hydro), you could recharge in the day, carry load into the evening peak, before switching to stored power.&lt;p&gt;Initial cost would be higher, but long term cost of Solar is ridiculously cheap.</text><parent_chain><item><author>Chilko</author><text>I found this really interesting as well as here in New Zealand that relationship is inverted - we don&amp;#x27;t typically have residential air conditioning yet use a lot of electric heating so our peak demand is in the mornings and evenings, and most intense in the winter. This makes the business case for solar a lot trickier here as the periods of max generation (daytime during the summer) coincides with low demand and subsequently low wholesale energy prices.</text></item><item><author>dvasdekis</author><text>The surprising inference from me, as an energy layman, is that solar output coincides with periods of peak demand. Obviously this is seasonally adjusted, but in an era when the Saudis have solar contracts being supplied for $10USD&amp;#x2F;MWh [0], the potential profits for a solar provider at periods of peak demand seem more than sufficient to encourage investment, especially with interest rates still at a historic low for big capital projects.&lt;p&gt;So, what gives? Where&amp;#x27;s the solar?&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reneweconomy.com.au&amp;#x2F;saudi-solar-plant-locks-in-new-record-low-price-for-power-1-04c-kwh&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reneweconomy.com.au&amp;#x2F;saudi-solar-plant-locks-in-new-r...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Datadog dashboard for the Texas power grid</title><url>https://p.datadoghq.com/sb/5c2fc00be-393be929c9c55c3b80b557d08c30787a?from_ts=1658093527470&amp;to_ts=1658698327470&amp;live=true</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>blamazon</author><text>Doesn&amp;#x27;t New Zealand have tons of hydro? Is it possible summer solar could be used to pump up a mountain reservoir somewhere with that energy sold 6 months later at a premium?</text><parent_chain><item><author>Chilko</author><text>I found this really interesting as well as here in New Zealand that relationship is inverted - we don&amp;#x27;t typically have residential air conditioning yet use a lot of electric heating so our peak demand is in the mornings and evenings, and most intense in the winter. This makes the business case for solar a lot trickier here as the periods of max generation (daytime during the summer) coincides with low demand and subsequently low wholesale energy prices.</text></item><item><author>dvasdekis</author><text>The surprising inference from me, as an energy layman, is that solar output coincides with periods of peak demand. Obviously this is seasonally adjusted, but in an era when the Saudis have solar contracts being supplied for $10USD&amp;#x2F;MWh [0], the potential profits for a solar provider at periods of peak demand seem more than sufficient to encourage investment, especially with interest rates still at a historic low for big capital projects.&lt;p&gt;So, what gives? Where&amp;#x27;s the solar?&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reneweconomy.com.au&amp;#x2F;saudi-solar-plant-locks-in-new-record-low-price-for-power-1-04c-kwh&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reneweconomy.com.au&amp;#x2F;saudi-solar-plant-locks-in-new-r...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Datadog dashboard for the Texas power grid</title><url>https://p.datadoghq.com/sb/5c2fc00be-393be929c9c55c3b80b557d08c30787a?from_ts=1658093527470&amp;to_ts=1658698327470&amp;live=true</url></story>