Energy Storage.. Moving Along

October 28th, 2011 by Zachary Shahan

Energy storage is a critical piece of the clean energy. While some think widespread adoption of EVs and smart grid technology are more important, energy storage is clearly going to play a bigger role in the future of our energy infrastructure.

Here’s the intro to a great piece on energy storage over on Grist. I highly recommend checking it out if you are into this topic (or even if you aren’t):

Tracking the politics of clean energy can be a surreal and dispiriting experience. D.C. is so swamped in fossil-fuel money, fossil-fuel lobbyists, and fossil-fuel-owned pols that the conventional wisdom is absurdly pessimistic about clean energy: It’s unreliable, it costs too much, it can never work, blah blah.

Meanwhile, out in the real world, costs are plunging and the intermittency problem (insofar as it’s actually a problem and not a talking point of the fossil crew) is being solved.

There are two ways to solve it: one is connecting more renewables over a wide geographic area, which generally requires more transmission lines and grid upgrade (for intriguing news on that front, see here); the other is adding energy storage, so solar and wind plants can provide power even when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. That’s what today’s post is about.

Photo Credit: A123 Systems

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Tags: quickies

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.