The news feeds are alive with innovative ideas for storage batteries. Many folk greet this as new technology, although energy storage is an ancient practice. Moreover, we can store energy in a variety of ways too. Here we think of chemical, electrical, gravitational, kinetic, latent heat, and energy in the form of high temperatures. We can preserve all of these energy sources in a battery or accumulator of some kind.
Ancient Forms of Energy Storage
The universe released unimaginable amounts of energy when it formed, some of which is still reaching us across light years beyond counting. Our own sun is a vast energy storage system, although we are only just beginning to use the resource.
Our ancestors released energy by burning wood to cook on, and coal to heat their homes. If enemies threatened their fortresses, they could release gravitational energy by rolling rocks down the hillside.
Earth was in balance until our great grandparents began burning coal to generate electricity. They thought this was a wonderful thing, and they meant well too. We should not judge them harshly. Much progress came from electricity.
How Did Grid Battery Storage Come About?
If you are a teen or in your early twenties, you may be surprised at the question, since for you grid battery storage became the new normal while you were growing up. In reality, energy storage only appeared very early this century.
This was when it dawned on us that global warming through pollution could destroy our civilization, and we must do something to stop it.
We found alternative energy in the wind, in sunshine, and in tidal power. However, there was a problem. Our electricity distribution systems require smooth, uninterrupted power, but mother nature is cyclical. Energy storage employing large numbers of batteries is proving the answer, by regulating supply.
We hope this eventually releases us from dependence on oil, coal and gas. Or else global warming – riding on high carbon-dioxide levels – could wipe our civilization away, as if we were grains of sand on a beach.
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Preview Image: Wood Fire
