Matthew Stepp: Overlooking the limits of renewable energy - commercial energy storage systems

We are losing the fight against global warming.
Global coal production is growing eight times faster than solar energy. and wind-
Power generation last year
In 2011, China added more coal-fired power plants than Texas and Ohio, despite China leading the world in wind power. power capacity.
At the same time, the United States only moderately reduces carbon emissions by shifting from coal to natural gas, which is still carbon emissions. rich fuel.
Despite these trends, the traditional view is that
The "energy future" is not only possible, but also imminent.
Some people believe that with the combination of energy efficiency and renewable technologies, we can "solve" the problem of climate change.
The case of "We have all the renewable energy we need" was recently driven by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
The study concluded: "using commercially available technologies today, combined with more flexible power systems, generating renewable power is sufficient to supply 80% of the total electricity generation in the United StatesS.
On 2050, electricity was sent, and electricity demand was met every hour in every region of the country.
"The leading advocate of green energy, physicist Amory Lovins, is one of those who praised the study.
He said it shows "how to produce 80-90% of US electricity from mature, reliable and increasingly competitive renewable sources such as solar and wind . ".
However, after careful reading, the study not only does not support these optimistic statements, but also reveals the need for a more diverse technology strategy and a positive investment in innovation.
First of all, the study did not find that wind and solar energy could not provide 80-90% of the energy in the United States, even in theory. S. power by 2050.
In the best case, less than half comes from the wind and the sun.
The remaining balance of renewable energy from the new hydropower in the future is equivalent to an increase of 50 Hoover-
Construction of large dams and biomass power plants of the same capacity as the United StatesS. nuclear fleet;
Biomass plants are unlikely to be carbon. neutral.
Even reached the US target of 50%. S.
The power supply of solar and wind energy assumes 100 to 150 gigawatts of energy storage, which is about half of the country's coal capacity and will appear to provide electricity when the sun is not bright and the wind is not blowing.
When pumping water
Today, there are storage in some places, other technical options such as very large batteries and compressed air that require more innovation to be cost-
Effective in business scale.
In fact, the storage estimate for this study may be low because it assumes that during peak times when wind and solar energy are not available, the number of homes and businesses that will be offline is equivalent to 1 in New York state.
It also assumes that the US economy will not grow. S.
Due to the improvement of energy efficiency, power consumption in the next 40 years.
Think about energy in California.
World-leading efficiency efforts
But demand in the Golden State has grown by 25% over the past two decades.
In addition, in order to achieve the goal of 50 percentage points in the United StatesS.
According to the study, solar and wind energy are twice that of the United States. S.
A transmission system that is not feasible at all.
New America almost every mileS.
The transmission line was contested by the place they passed.
The report details what happens to power reliability or consumer costs if more than one hypothesis fails to be realized.
In short: NREL research shows that what is possible in an ideal world is far from a realistic plan.
The authors even acknowledge that while their analysis suggests that "the future of high renewable power generation is possible, the transformation of the power system needs to be carried out. . .
Each element of the grid is involved.
"Of course, one of the ways to solve global warming is to improve efficiency and increase wind and solar energy.
But it is unwise to bet all our bets on today's renewable technology.
A more sensible approach would be to invest in improving the performance of a wide range of zero costs
Through innovation, including better and cheaper wind and solar energy and energy storage, carbon technology.
We must also be realistic about fossil fuels, which provide 87% of the planet's energy and will not disappear soon.
The United States needs to scale up carbon capture and storage and reduce costs.
The same cautious approach is to explore the next step of cheaper --
Providing power generation nuclear technology with better safety, waste and safety options than Fukushima-type light-
The water design that was locked inside during the Eisenhower government period.
The real lesson from NREL research is that more innovation is needed to achieve deep and affordable carbon reduction.
Today, however, almost all policies and funding are focused on deploying current technologies. U. S.
Investment in energy innovation is less than 5% of federal defense research and demonstration spending.
This must change.
If the grid is going to produce less carbon, we need better and cheaper options.