From the December 2009 issue of Discover magazine.
KEMA - A global, leading authority in energy consulting and testing & certification.
Ralph Masiello's "bright idea": Store renewable energy so we can use it when we need it.
One of the main problems with the electrical infrastructure is that there is really no way to store electrical power - "every time somebody in the house turned the light on or off, ultimately the source of electricity - the generation plant - had to wiggle up or down."
But we have finally reached the point that we can put storage on the grid, handling fluctuations and the imbalance between demand and supply.
Right now, plants have to pay someone to send excess energy to, sometimes dropping the price of electricity to -$20/megawatt hour, an expenditure that is passed on to the consumer.
However, batteries are too limited, and Masiello suggests figuring it out as a fuel problem. He calls for a smart grid that only releases energy when asked for, storing it otherwise.
There are some legal and industrial hurdles, but in the long run, it would mean cheaper electricity, and power generated by wind and solar, not coal.
KEMA - A global, leading authority in energy consulting and testing & certification.
Ralph Masiello's "bright idea": Store renewable energy so we can use it when we need it.
One of the main problems with the electrical infrastructure is that there is really no way to store electrical power - "every time somebody in the house turned the light on or off, ultimately the source of electricity - the generation plant - had to wiggle up or down."
But we have finally reached the point that we can put storage on the grid, handling fluctuations and the imbalance between demand and supply.
Right now, plants have to pay someone to send excess energy to, sometimes dropping the price of electricity to -$20/megawatt hour, an expenditure that is passed on to the consumer.
However, batteries are too limited, and Masiello suggests figuring it out as a fuel problem. He calls for a smart grid that only releases energy when asked for, storing it otherwise.
There are some legal and industrial hurdles, but in the long run, it would mean cheaper electricity, and power generated by wind and solar, not coal.
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