[Blue Bomber Man]

I will look up some sources tomorrow. But for now consider this, Denmark has 20% from wind, read: one source

The concept I am talking about integrates many different sources. Additionally they cover a much larger area with varying climates and weather patterns.

Other things that could potentially help stabilize the grid is all the excess deep cycle hybrid car batteries that will be hitting the market soon for disposal. These batteries are not dead, just no longer practical because their energy density dropped too low to be useful for a car. When they say the lifespan of some battery is 5 years, they are refering to its ability to hold a particular amount of energy, generally in watt hours or amp hours.

The old battery packs could be sold to companies (or even used in homeowners house's if the grid allowed for price changes based on time of day) that could help stabilize demand over time.

Example: The chevy volt uses a 16kwh pack. Assuming a 5 year cycle, it would have 12.8kwh after 5 years. For simplification, call its 12kwh, so devide that by 120 volts and you get 100 amp hours. The pack would recharge at night, then put into house during the day, improving the efficiency of the grid and stabilizing demand. It would probably be more economical to have a site dedicated to the storage rather then a home owner so that the batteries can be properly maintained and eventually disposed of.


For fun lets take this further. Toyota and other companies have sold many hybrids. Lets say the number is 2 million vehicles, each with a 5 kwh pack. (I am just guessing at these numbers, but they seem plausible, could spend 10 minutes looking it up, but these will work for this discussion). That works out to 10 Giga watt-hours of capicity. Currently these batteries either get refurbished or recycled (hopefully not trashed). A car owned could SELL their old battery or as some have suggested such as Amory Lovins they would never own their packs, they would simply lease them and when it was time to replace them they would swap it out, and the old pack would be put to industrial use.


You are so adament that wind and solar are not practical, but the reality is coal and other fossil fuels are the energy sources not practical; they are just artificially cheap because we do not buy the energy at the actually price we pay.

Some what off topic, I am for nuclear as well, though I think renewables is a better option.