A world without oil? - energy storage solutions

In the past five years, the cost of wind and solar power has fallen sharply and global production capacity has increased significantly.
Without fossil fuels, the idea of using only wind energy, solar energy and smart devices to fully power our world is fascinating.
To meet our daily energy needs, a symphony of wind blowing, sun shining, and battery charging is conceptually logical but challenging.
Dialogue on energy futures is often simplified and polarized.
They are simplified because they usually only consider electricity that accounts for 1 out of 5 of the final energy, and there is polarization when considering renewable energy futures rather than low-carbon options.
With the exception of 100 percent renewable energy, anything is sometimes considered to harm the interests of the fossil fuel industry.
What is usually missing is context, which is important.
Today, wind and solar power are twice as high as ours.
Although renewable technology has made very positive progress, we still have a long way to go before we see influential measures.
This must be seen in the context of increasing global energy consumption. A has shown that, in theory, there are enough wind turbines, solar panels and smart storage solutions that we can generate enough power at any point in time to meet all of our energy needs.
These insights are an important first step in understanding the future of fossil-free fuels, but do not consider important technical aspects that bridge the gap between theory and reality.
It's like assuming you can meet your house's water needs by capturing and storing water that falls on the roof, but ignore other challenges like water pressure, water quality and what happens when it's dry or leaking.
Large-scale applications have not been confirmed so far, because it is not understood if we can run 100% renewable energy systems using wind and solar energy alone in some way.
Planning the future with unproven concepts is risky.
The broader balance of evidence suggests that our future energy needs are more likely to meet ambitions through a mix of fuel and technology, including fossil fuels.
Research has shown that while the world must strive to significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels, they may remain an important part of the global mix.
There are many reasons why it is difficult to get rid of fossil fuels completely.
Petrochemical, heavy transport, heavy industries, shipping, aviation and other fields, in the foreseeable future, electricity is difficult or expensive, may rely on oil, and in a cleaner future, electricity will play a more important role because it can be discharged free of charge at the source, and we know very little about how the future power grid will operate without a large traditional power plant.
Today's power plant provides an important technical feature for the power system, called "inertia", which is like glue, making our power system pulse at normal frequencies.
This is important for a stable power supply.
In addition to having any operational experience in this area, few countries have also told us that changes in energy fuels take time and traditional fuels often linger.
Oil has used more than coal for nearly 80 years, becoming the main fuel for the 1960 generation of the global economy, and coal is still mixed today.
Wind and solar energy must play an important role in a cleaner future.
However, we need to significantly increase their deployment as they are unlikely to meet the challenge on their own and may have to be praised by other fuels.
Natural gas may continue to play an important role in the power sector, providing system flexibility for heating and transportation, and replacing fuel with higher emissions.
This means that sustainable biological energy sources and low-carbon options, such as nuclear energy and fossil fuel technologies that capture or reuse carbon, may fill this gap.
Addressing climate change and creating a clean future is a major challenge and all technological options for climate change mitigation need to be assessed;
Even nuclear, fossil fuels, capturing emissions and using land as energy are sometimes unpopular solutions.
The good news about the progress of renewable energy is important, but we cannot be complacent about the challenges of achieving a cleaner future.
As a global society, we are experiencing tragic failures in our transition to a cleaner economy, and nothing can encourage failure more than complacency.