Electricity is a major commodity that is produced on demand, not stockpiled in advance. Generally, there is no choice in the matter. We simply don’t have very many ways to store large amounts of electricity.
Most of us think of electricity pretty much the same way we think of the water that comes into our homes. We turn on the faucet and out comes the water. We flip the switch and the electricity flows. But our water probably comes from a nearby reservoir while our electricity must be generated on demand.
This works well enough when we can turn on generators when we need them. But nowadays we are increasingly making use of wind turbines and solar panels to produce electricity and, in the language of the industry, these resources are not dispatchable. Wind turbines only turn when the wind is blowing; solar panels only work when the sun is shining. We have no control over either.
If these sources of clean energy are to become major contributors to the grid, we will need to store the energy they produce so we can access it when we need it. Storing energy on the grid is the goal of an emerging industry based on advanced batteries, compressed air, hydrogen, and other advanced technologies.
According to William Acker, Executive Director of the NY Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium, “Cost-effective, reliable energy storage on a large scale will dramatically change how the entire electricity industry functions.”
Energy storage is key to our green-energy future.
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Web Links
For more information about energy storage, and the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST), please visit:
Photo, taken on June 28, 2008, courtesy of Patrick Finnegan via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, with partial support from the Field Day Foundation.