Could One Million Smart Pool Pumps ‘Store’ Renewable Energy Better Than Giant Batteries?

Environment





Photo credit:

Lots of wind blowing – often at night when there’s little demand for power. ncbob/flickr, CC BY-NC

As more wind and solar energy comes online, the people who run the power grid have a problem: how do they compensate for the variable nature of the sun and wind?

California plans to spend billions of dollars for batteries to even out the flow of power from solar and wind, much the way shock absorbers smooth out bumps on the road. But do they need to? Not at all!