How The Ocean Can Store New Energy

'The ocean makes perfect sense as the world's largest battery'; Wind and solar have made huge progress, but only tapping the resources of the ocean will give the world the renewable energy it needs

John Liljelund, 4 October 2017 (ReCharge News)

“…[B]y 2030 electricity demand is expected to increase more than 40%...[and] 40% of the current fleet is planned to retire by 2040, together driving a need for up to 15,000GW of new capacity installations…[S]even out of ten new energy units are projected to be low-carbon, increasing the total share of low-carbon electricity from around 30% to 45%...[T]he need for flexibility and predictability in the system is not only preferred, but essential…The world’s need for renewable energy cannot be met without harnessing the ocean, the biggest solar battery we have…

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The sun creates the winds and the winds create the waves, complemented with the tides powered by the moon. When the sun is blocked by clouds and the winds have died down, all that energy is stored in the ever-moving ocean, offering its vast power potential of hundreds of gigawatts of generation capacity for the taking, with a predictability of days in advance – and years ahead in the case of tidal…All we need to exploit the ocean and its endless source of energy is meticulous, persistent work…[and] political commitment…” click here for more

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