Charles C. Mann Quote
Germany, richer than India, has about seventy energy-storage projects, about a third of which collect the output from wind and solar plants into banks of batteries. The price of batteries, like the price of photovoltaics, has been falling. Renewable-energy enthusiasts imagine great warehouses full of batteries, soaking up excess sun power by day, releasing it by night, keeping the lights on in the dark. But no matter how cheap the batteries are, such facilities will involve constructing a second, parallel infrastructure for energy storage, adjacent to the first, for energy production, a costly step for the foreseeable future. Today, as in Mouchot’s time, free energy from the sun is surprisingly expensive.
Germany, richer than India, has about seventy energy-storage projects, about a third of which collect the output from wind and solar plants into banks of batteries. The price of batteries, like the price of photovoltaics, has been falling. Renewable-energy enthusiasts imagine great warehouses full of batteries, soaking up excess sun power by day, releasing it by night, keeping the lights on in the dark. But no matter how cheap the batteries are, such facilities will involve constructing a second, parallel infrastructure for energy storage, adjacent to the first, for energy production, a costly step for the foreseeable future. Today, as in Mouchot’s time, free energy from the sun is surprisingly expensive.
Related Quotes
For everything in this journey of life we are on, there is a right wing and a left wing: for the wing of love there is anger; for the wing of destiny there is fear; for the wing of pain there is heali...
About Charles C. Mann
