Banking energy

Feedin’ the grid
Producing electricity is fairly easy to do. Spin a turbine and out comes electricity—sort of. However, saving electricity for later use is a different story. Electricity from the U.S. power grid comes mostly from nonrenewable resources, such as coal or natural gas, although a scant amount is attained through renewable resources, such as flowing water from hydroelectric dams. In 2007, the U.S. power grid produced a whopping 4 trillion KWh of electricity primarily produced from nonrenewable resources (see chart).

Bring it on
Just about everyone, including our government, agrees we need to feed the grid with a greater amount of renewable sources. Providing the U.S. power grid with electricity generated from renewables, such as wind, photovoltaic or solar thermal, is indisputably important to our nation’s well-being. But these renewable sources are inherently intermittent. When the sun sets and the winds stop blowing, how will the grid be able to keep a continual supply of electricity flowing to meet the demand? There really is only one good answer—Massive Electricity Storage (MES) technology.

Guessing game
Once it has been created, electricity has as close to a zero shelf life of any product produced and sold in the world. The supply and demand for electricity is instantaneous. The moment you plug in and turn on an electrical device, the power company must produce and distribute the electricity demanded by that device.

Many people think big brother is watching over them, but as big as big brother is, he has no idea how many devices you have planned to plug in at any given moment. Basically, what happens is that the power company providing the electricity guesses how much electricity must be produced at the very moment it is being used to meet the corresponding unpredictable demand. If too much electricity is produced—and not consumed—it goes wasted or unsold. On the other hand, problems, such as brown-outs, which can damage motors and electronic devices, occur if demand exceeds production.

Storage studies
No matter the demands, the most important aspect of a power grid is reliability. To provide a more reliable source of electricity from renewable energy sources, our federal government is pumping a lot of money into researching technology capable of storing massive amounts of electricity. Storing electricity also helps to even out the supply and demand by providing a constant supply that would significantly reduce peak demand periods.

Energy initiative
Massive storage of electricity is essentially “cueing up” a ready supply in anticipation of its use. As the supply is depleted, the power company can respond, with much more time to think about it, to refilling the storage bank, along with a much greater accuracy of how much should be created. In essence, there is now a lag between the demand for the electricity and its production. Given that the generation and use of electricity is the single-greatest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it’s extremely important to encourage and support MES technology, which will result in a more efficient and reliable power grid generated increasingly by sustainable resources.