Published in Horizon, 5 Oct 2015
The biggest challenge in making renewable energy viable for the mass market is finding ways to store energy when the skies are dim and the wind doesn’t blow, and that problem may be solved sooner than you think.
Unless energy can be squirrelled away at times of plenty to be unearthed at times of scarcity, clean technologies like solar and wind power will always need significant amounts of backup from conventional sources.
That’s a big issue, not least because the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive requires Member States to fulfil at least 20 % of their renewable energy needs by 2020, and it’s one of the main challenges in making renewable energy viable for the mass market. […]
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