One of
the major problems that have been plaguing the renewable energy industry is
that the energy from the source is not constant. The light from the sun, the
wind and even the water levels in the dam fluctuate. They are not constant. The direct impact of these fluctuations or
intermittent-ness is that the Capacity factors of these power stations are
quite low. Typically wind power capacity factors are 20-40%.
Hydro capacity factors may be in the range of 30-80%, normally, toward
the low end. Photovoltaic capacity factors are 12-15% compared
to 60 -100% for Nuclear, 70-90% for base loaded thermal power
plants and 60% for combined
cycle gas plant.
The
solution commonly employed to address this variability is to use batteries to
store the power when it exceeds demand. The batteries can be used to supply
power to the grid when source is not available. However this solution too has
its share of problems. To begin with, it requires a huge stack of batteries to
store the kind of power which is generated. Moreover in some cases, lead acid
batteries are used which are not environment friendly.
I
just came across this video, which claims to have solved this problem. It's
very interesting!
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