William Pickard believes in long range planning—at least 70 years into the future. He foresees the economic end to earth’s fossil fuel supply before the end of this century, and hopes to promote a smooth transition to an energy future fueled by renewables. But he is wary of what has been called the Achilles’ heel of renewable energy—intermittency.
This retired Washington University professor of electrical and systems engineering fears that in their retirements his grandchildren will have a drastically reduced standard of living if the world does not develop and implement technology to assure a constant supply of electricity.
Pickard recently co-edited a special volume of the Proceedings of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) entitled “The Intermittency Challenge: Massive Energy Storage in a Sustainable Future.” In this volume the authors discuss various strategies for coping with the fact that the sun only shines during the day, and the “Wind bloweth where it listeth” (John 3:8, King James Bible).
Sun and wind can provide plenty of energy to support a modern industrial world. Gregory Wilson, Director of the National Center for Photovoltaics, calculates that even with the less-than-constant sun of St. Louis, and using today’s solar panels, a field 7% the size of the United States landmass could power the entire planet. Of course many areas on earth have nearly constant daily sunshine. And many areas are prone to windy conditions.
Unfortunately sun and wind electricity cannot be stored on a large scale at present. Without storage, and without backup generators burning fossil fuels, it could be cold and dark at night—with no television to entertain and the possibility that a visit to the emergency room might not even allow an X-ray.
Continue reading Intermittency: Achilles’ heel of renewable energy
