The archive
Writing
Essays and explainers on energy storage, battery chemistry, and the economics of holding clean power until it is needed.
Essay The case for storing heat instead of electricity A hot water tank is a battery for heat loads, with no round-trip conversion losses. That matters more than grid planners typically acknowledge. Essay When the wind doesn't blow for a week The four-hour battery solves the evening peak. The multi-day calm is a different problem, and the technologies competing to solve it look nothing like lithium-ion. Essay In praise of boring batteries The battery that will decarbonize the grid is unlikely to be the exciting one. For storage that never moves, cheap, safe, and durable beats dense and clever almost every time. Essay The grid's hardest hour is after sunset Why the defining challenge of a renewable grid is not making clean power but covering the few hours each evening when the sun is gone and demand is not.