In order for current renewable technologies to provide a solid foundation for energy supply in the future, we need to master the tech behind energy storage. Storage needs to play a bigger part in our energy grid and until this is the case, relying on renewable energy sources like wind and solar will remain a very distant target.
While wind and solar are currently perhaps our best shot at clean, renewable energy, they cease to provide us with the energy we need when the wind stops blowing or the sun doesn’t shine. With non-renewables in inevitable decline our dependency will eventually shift toward the likes of wind and solar power generation but the challenge does not stop there; if we can’t store energy when the going is good then there are going to be unavoidable gaps in supply.
The current electricity grid is an interconnected network that serves as a two way exchange between suppliers and consumers, there is currently no wide scale storage solution of any kind. Some sites may have onsite back-up generators or power stores but the grid on the whole provides electricity on demand and has no way of backing up or providing contingency energy. Of course, solutions have sprung up in the past but most of those use pumped hydropower – basically a system that pumps water up a steep gradient to reservoir and then releases it allowing to flow down and turn turbines that generate electricity. While this is a viable solution it does have geographical limitations and requires manpower to achieve so on a larger scale it simply wouldn’t be practical. We need to integrate energy storage solutions into our power grids on a national scale in order for us to truly benefit from the environmental savings that can be made from renewable energy.
But perhaps a more attainable target at this time would be the improvement of storage materials and efficiency of battery technologies – not to mention the once distant notion of hydrogen fuel cells in the home which will eventually be used to make homes self sufficient and power their electric radiators and other energy conscious appliances. If batteries can be improved they would drastically improve the efficiency and therefore the cost of using electric powered vehicles for example. It would then be a simple case of swapping batteries and being able to keep your own ‘back up supply’ of electricity.
This links nicely to another article here regarding the UK’s recent announcement to host the largest megawatt battery in Europe – an excellent step toward making renewable energy generated from wind farms and solar a viable and practical solution the inevitable exhaustion of gas and oil. Fracking and shale gas are all good and well now (aside from the obvious attached risk of the process) but the Government needs to look ahead to the future and begin making preparations to deal with a situation that is simply unavoidable.