Police detectives tend to not work "a beat", but instead a selection of cases. Reviewing paperwork from the field can easily take up most of their time. They could have to be reading like a hundred witness statements to try to figure out what actually happened, most likely, who's lying, and why. Collaborating testimony with other evidence, reviewing security camera footage, reading test results - DNA, fingerprint, drug, residue, etc... Deciding whether or not there's enough evidence to try for a warrant or the UK's equivalent. Following up with witnesses, scheduling interviews, etc...

Well, that's $489 per kWh, which is over $100 USD/kWh, but that also includes engineering, facility construction, grid integration, and all that.

I might be being pessimistic, but I'm not being massively so like the original poster, who was assuming replacement every 15 years. I was pushing that out to 20-30 and suggesting even longer. But, well, I wanted to stick to tested information. And most of that information is with EVs at this point, not grid reserve. We shall have to see.

I mentioned Sodium though? $400B AUD for LFP, $100B AUD for sodium.
And right now LFP cells are tested to last longer than Sodium Ion. But they are supposed to theoretically be able to last longer than LFP, which is why I said there's room for R&D to extend that.

By the sound of it, he’s arguing that in a 100% renewable electric grid, to keep outages from rare production lulls—like multi-day periods that are both overcast (cutting solar) and calm (cutting wind)—to less than once per decade, you’d need about 3 days’ worth of energy storage. That’s plausible. Even a 30-day stretch producing only 90% of demand could be buffered with that reserve.

Australia’s annual electricity use is around 200 TWh, so 2 TWh is roughly 1%—closer to 3.7 days of average demand. That’s in the right ballpark, especially with rounding and overhead. Back-of-napkin accuracy is fine here; maybe the extra cost is wiring, inverters, and grid integration.

What’s not reasonable are the cost comparisons.

Australia’s public healthcare budget is about $180 billion AUD/year. A lithium-ion buildout at ~$100 USD/kWh would cost around $400 billion AUD for 2 TWh. Spread over 15 years, that’s ~$26 billion AUD/year—just 14% of healthcare spending, not more.

If they go with sodium-ion, which is emerging at ~$30 USD/kWh, the total cost drops to ~$100 billion AUD, or ~$6.7 billion/year—less than 4% of healthcare spending.

And that’s assuming a pessimistic 15-year battery lifespan. In reality, the sheer size of the system means shallow daily cycling, which dramatically extends life. Batteries degrade slower when they’re not pushed hard. A system sized for rare deep discharge could last 20–30 years, especially with smart charge management.

Plus, investing $100B+ into grid storage would naturally accelerate R&D, manufacturing scale, and chemistry improvements. LFP cells currently outperform sodium-ion on cycle life, but sodium has room to grow-and in grid use, even 40% remaining capacity can still be useful. You don’t need to scrap a battery at 80%. Just add more cells or shift its role.

I've been thinking about this some. It's NYC, so entry from outside would imply a ground floor, less than ideal. Maybe climbing up a fire escape would work.

Making it look like a utility closet would probably work well. Still have access from inside, not restricted to where you can get at it from outside the building. All depends on the access rating of the place, of course. For example, a painted wooden panel screwed onto the wall concealing the entrance. Sure, can't access it on a whim, but could sit for years.

Keeping an eye on public records to find spaces that are under dispute with said dispute unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, then just change the locks.

There are ultimately lots of options.

I'm actually thinking that it would be "make VOIP calls look local and avoid mass shutdowns for spamming people with scam calls."

They then rent the service out globally to said scammers from China, India, even Pakistan and North Korea.

It doesn't need to be a whole abandoned building - just a specific abandoned spot within it. If anything, a building still otherwise in use would be superior, more noise to hide the power draw in.
I've watched some some specials on NYC buildings. "Useable" floorspace getting walled away or even just forgotten behind a locked door happens regularly. Inheritances, will disputes, remodeling snafus, and more.

As for the use of the servers themselves - I'm guessing they were used to make scam calls and such using local phone numbers.

I do think with concepts. They get translated into words to post here, because that's how slashdot works. I think about the square-cube law, I'm actually picturing a 3D cube in my head.
What you haven't done is make any acknowledgement of the concept that while a sand battery might not be efficient at the scale of a house (for example), the bigger it gets the more efficient it becomes. A house might not be enough space - though there are plenty of thermal mass solutions for houses, such as masonry heaters. But this is a district system, 1-2 orders of magnitude larger.
Look at the history:
1. You reply to me, wondering how it can be efficient due to heat loss.
2. I reply, mentioning that the square-cube law means that it won't actually have that much surface area relative to the volume, giving several examples (like an office building).
3. "All heat exchangers are fundamentally surface increase mechanisms." does not imply philosophical heat exchangers that include unintended exchangers or even insulated structures, which are designed to minimize surface increases.
4. This is storage, not a designed radiator; they've optimized for the opposite
5. Accusing me of not understanding.
etc...
You never actually specifically invoked the concept.

There's multiple options for money transfers if any one system goes down. That said, have you seen how many businesses can stay in operation if the internet is down lately? All the major stores shut down.

Well, our language is littered with it - ATM Machine, PIN Number, LCD Display, UPC Code, DMZ Zone, Free gift, new innovation, etc...

Personally, I don't think "the patriarchy" actually exists, at least not in the form attributed to it. While Marx was very off base in a lot of things, I think that what people mistake for patriarchy is actually class dominance. Most men don't have the advantages they would actually have if there was actually a patriarchy enforcing male rule.

What a lot of people tend to miss is that while Men might have more hard power - by law due to their position, wealth, strength of arm, and all that, that women have a lot of "soft power". The ability to convince others to do things without actually having any legal requirement to do so.

I tend to start comparing humans to lion packs in this case. A few powerful and lucky men get many of the women, and while it might look like a heady and desired position, it's a lot more fragile than most think, and only a fraction of men get it. Women actually have a much easier time of it on average, even if they don't reach the lofty heights.

Wait, you expect Americans to understand the rules of the road? There's the problem...

Sounds like advice a mutter or pickpocket would give.

You clearly haven't seen how drivers in the USA like to handle them. Inconsistent signage doesn't help.
Though other people pointing out that people, even Americans, get used to them fairly rapidly is true. We have an increasing number in my local area, most people handle them fine now.
I learned how to handle them in Germany.

"Seem" would be the point. Unlike many Americans, I'm well used to cogeneration plants. Eielson AFB has one, Fort Wainwright does, University of Alaska Fairbanks does as well.
Yes, I'm well aware of the temperatures involved.
Using a heat pump on the sand would be to reduce the heat levels necessary. And no, no super rare golden grade refrigerant required. Propane, Ammonia, R-32, all of it would work.

As for words vs concepts. You still don't seem to have grasped the square cube law. It's not like I can draw a picture on slashdot.

I'm well familiar that "everything is a heat exchanger", but outside of that philosophical point, when you say heat exchanger, I assume a dedicated designed one, made to exchange heat efficiently in a relatively small area with relatively small or cheap materials.
A cooler is still a heat exchanger, but it's designed to impede that.

A great big huge box of sand ends up being effectively well insulated just because of the high mass to surface area ratio.