The Polar Vortex Reveal About 100% New Energy

100% Renewable Energy Needs Lots of Storage. This Polar Vortex Test Showed How Much; Energy analysts used power demand data from the Midwest’s January deep freeze and wind and solar conditions to find the gaps in an all-renewable power grid.

Dan Gearino, February 20, 2019 (Inside Climate News)

“…[Energy analysts used energy production and power demand data from the 2019 Polar Vortex to show how much energy storage would have been needed by] a 100 percent renewable energy grid, powered half by wind and half by solar…[The analysis found] storage would need to go from about 11 gigawatts today to 277.9 gigawatts…[That is about double the] current forecast for energy storage nationwide in 2040…The country would need] a huge build-out of wind, solar and energy storage, plus interstate power lines… During the Jan. 27 – Feb. 2 polar vortex event, the analysts test case of 50 percent wind, 50 percent solar would have had gaps of up to 18 hours in which renewable sources were not producing enough electricity to meet the high demand, so storage systems would need to fill in…

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The grid would have to be designed to best use wind and solar when they're available, and to store the excess when those resources are providing more electricity than needed, a fundamental shift from the way most of the system is managed today…[and] energy storage will need to be more than just batteries…[S]uch a transition can be done and is in line with what state and local governments and utilities are already moving toward…Local politics may be the most challenging part of quickly making an all-renewable electricity system…[C]ommunities would need to be willing to host those projects along with the transmission lines that would move the electricity…” click here for more

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