Category Archives: Energy Storage

Intermittent wind, solar, and wave power can not replace fossil fuels and nuclear power electricity generation without energy storage

Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)

Posted on October 13, 2019 by

Preface. This is the only commercial way to store energy now (CAES hardly counts with just one plant and salt domes to put more in existing in only 5 states). Though of course hydropower is only in a few states … Continue reading →

Posted in Dams, Energy Production, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

Why solar power can’t save us from the coming energy crisis

Posted on July 2, 2019 by

Preface. Embedded within the posts below are many reasons why solar electricity can’t replace fossil fuels.  All solar and wind do is add to the giant fire of burning fossil fuels with just a tiny bit more power, about 4% … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, CSP with thermal energy storage, Solar, Solar EROI | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Utility scale energy storage has a long way to go to make renewables possible

Posted on May 15, 2019 by

What follows comes from my book “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation” , which is also where you’ll find the references backing up what I’ve written below. I often get letters from people about energy breakthroughs … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, Critical Thinking, Electric Grid, Electricity, Renewable Integration | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Can Zinc batteries save us?

Posted on February 17, 2019 by

Preface: The New York Times had two articles about zinc air batteries in September 2018.  Right now, finite natural gas is the dominant way of balancing unreliable, outright missing, or intermittent power from wind and solar.  So other energy storage … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Energy Storage, Lithium-ion | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Underground pumped hydro storage is the only technology capable of massive storage for renewable electricity

Posted on September 27, 2017 by

[ Picard concludes that “None of the candidate technologies for massive-scale renewable and sustainable generation of ‘‘green’’ electricity deliver it in a form suitable for high-efficiency storage. None of the prospectively-massive storage modes for transformed electricity is at present well … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Grid, Energy Storage, Grid instability, Hydropower, Renewable Integration | Tagged , | 4 Comments

How are energy storage batteries coming along? U.S. House hearing 2015

Posted on April 5, 2017 by

[ My favorite quotes from this U.S. House of Representatives session: THOMAS MASSIE, KENTUCKY. I want to say this has been a very enlightening hearing, and it confirms my personal experience, which is batteries are not sexy. Buckets of acid … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Energy Policy, Energy Storage | Tagged , | Comments Off on How are energy storage batteries coming along? U.S. House hearing 2015

How is California’s AB2514 experiment with utility scale battery storage coming along?

Posted on December 3, 2016 by

[ This is an excellent article by Tod Kiefer about tests of sodium-sulfur batteries, which are the only kind of battery for which there is enough material on earth to make. Battery electric storage is meant to “replace nimble, fast-ramping … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, Electricity | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Utility scale energy storage batteries limited by materials and few locations for pumped hydro, compressed air

Posted on August 14, 2016 by

[ Natural gas is finite, but aside from (pumped) hydropower, natural gas is the main way wind and solar are balanced now. Therefore, a tremendous amount of energy storage will be needed in the future as natural gas declines. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy Resources, Batteries, Energy Storage | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Is large-scale energy storage dead?

Posted on July 18, 2016 by

 April 8, 2016 by Roger Andrews at euanmearns.com Many countries have committed to filling large percentages of their future electricity demand with intermittent renewable energy, and to do so they will need long-term energy storage in the terawatt-hours range. But … Continue reading →

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Utility, large-scale battery energy storage

Posted on August 15, 2015 by

Hodson, H. July 25, 2015. Power to the people. NewScientist. Demand for electricity varies every second, minute, hour, day, and season.  Production is easy to provide from always-ready natural gas and coal. But as we move towards a 100% renewable … Continue reading →

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