There are many things we ought to do to create a better life for our grand kids. One of these would have to universal energy, so all could live a healthier life. However, this would need to be of the non-polluting kind, because we must do something about global warming too. Battery energy storage is a key to our future in this regard.
We Need the Energy Storage Key Now!
Abundant energy storage is not a future dream we can leave for generations that follow. We are making great progress with coupling wind and solar and batteries, and are shrinking our demand for fossil. Those installations are much faster to construct than nuclear. And they are infinitely scalable too!
We Have Different Storage Strategies
We have a number of ways for storing energy nowadays. The storage strategy we follow depends on what we wish to achieve:
- Do we need to store energy temporarily, and use it to balance utility grid fluctuations?
- Or do we need something to bolster our ongoing energy generation during peak demand?
- Or do we have a regular, recurring goal, for example to replace direct solar energy at night?
We Have Several Energy Storage Keys
What’s really neat about this solution is the number of technologies we have to address these three strategies.
PUMPED HYDRO STORAGE
Pumped hydro storage dams may take a long time to construct, indeed as much as very large power stations. However, once they are up and running they are cheap to operate. Although they do need an external energy source to ‘recharge’ their water batteries.
BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE
Electrochemical storage batteries are a much faster solution, although they use scarce minerals and may pollute the environment. Like hydro storage they need external power to recharge them, and there are energy losses involved.
FUTURE STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES
Several new energy storage technologies are emerging. Here we think of flywheel, compressed air, gravity, and solar fuels. We imagine a mix of these in future. But we can only guess which one will become the long-term, key energy storage solution.
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Solar Energy and Critical Battery Storage
