Are the Batteries Ready? 100% Clean Energy Requires Progress on Storage

By John Farrell
07 August 2012   |  

 

In the long run, there’s no avoiding energy storage for a 100% renewable energy society.  The two major sources of renewable power are wind and sun, and they are either fickle or reliably not available at night.
The problem is that the simplest energy storage option for electricity is batteries, and this image from Wikipedia (hat tip to Robert Rapier) illustrates a significant technical barrier: our simplest option is also among the least energy dense material we have.
There are two likely paths to a 100% renewable energy future in these circumstances: mass distribution of low-density, low-cost storage or higher density storage.