The same question always arises with wind power – what do you do when it’s not windy?
One of the challenges that the national grid has is making sure there’s enough power to mee demand, but not overproducing. It’s not like you can pour excess electricity into a big plastic jug for the next time you need it.
In the US, the Energy Storage Council state on their website that the ‘old’ electricity value chain ran like this:
FUEL/ENERGY SOURCE>>GENERATION>>TRANSMISSION>>DISTRIBUTION>>DELIVERY
The new value chain factors in storage meaning that not unlike telecommunications loop unbundling, it changes the nature of the game and makes it more commercially competitive.
When will we see viable storage options for electricity? It’s anyone’s guess. A giant Duracell battery in every town, about the size of a watertower, with weird crackling plasma lighting up its surroundings like a bust neon? probably not.
But the one thing that the renewables industry would benefit from is mass storage devices. When tyhey start to appear we’ll know that we have truly come to live in the future.
