Intermittency Of Renewables?… Not So Much

[BlueStreak]

55. Right, the numbers are vast

I do not accept that there is ANY storage problem when the intermittent renewables represent 5% of the supply, but certainly it can become an issue at some much higher level. And as you point out, the numbers are enormous in scale. Dinking around with car batteries is a complete waste of time -- a preposterous business and technical proposition.

More diversity of generation sources (waves, offshore wind) wil help. To make a serious dent in the storage problem you need something that can operate at a large scale. Flow batteries have this potential because they can scale to whatever size electrolyte tank you want to build. Pressurized air apparently works in certain geological situations. Pumping water uphill into reservoirs is scalable. There is some thought that specialized flywheel systems can be part of the solution. These are the things that serious thinkers are working on.

I don't believe it is a 2016 problem or even a 2020 problem. Maybe by 2025 it is a problem. It is a good problem to have because it means we will have made significant progress getting rid of carbon generators.