jaizan wrote:
If we fill the North Sea with wind turbines and everyone has heat pumps, how would we heat houses when the wind isn't blowing for a few days ?
No one has the answer.
This is untrue.
There are loads of different technologies and solutions being trialled to overcome the issue of storing the excess energy from the wind farms, to use when the wind isn't blowing. What we don't have at the moment is a solution that is both scalable and cost effective
my favourite at the moment is to use the excess energy from the wind and solar farms to create Hydrogen. There is a proposal going through planning at the moment for Dogger Bank D to be used to power a Hydrogen Electrolysis plant on the East Coast. The Hydrogen will be stored underground, same as the way we store natural gas through the summer, then can be used for power generation as and when required.
https://www.rechargenews.com/wind/world ... -1-1399479There are other development in battery technology that move away from Lithium. There are so many companies and universities working in this area because of the massive financial benefits it will acrue. These WILL come to fruition over the next 10 or 15 years.
Everybody knows that wind alone isn't the answer, but there's a massive opportunity to come up with solutions that will work alongside wind and solar generation. The UK needs to be at the forefront of developing these solutions, and provide a market for companies to commit budgets to explore and build these solutions.
I really dislike this head in the sand type mentality. reminds me of the complaining about the advent of the railways in the early C19th, when a horse is just as good, doesn't need coal or rails, only takes 10 minutes to get ready, and provides fertiliser for the vegetable patch.
Remember, necessity is the mother of invention