> Storage is everywhere. Your gas tank stores fuel for your car. Your fridge and the supermarket store food. Your bank and wallet store money. Dams and water towers store water. Your computer stores photos, documents, and other data. Grocery stores, and other retail stores, store merchandise waiting for consumers.
> Imagine a world without storage. You’d have to glean food directly from the fields. You’d drink from the stream. Your car would need a hose running all the way to an oil field. We depend on storage for daily life in the modern world.
> And yet, the electric power grid has no storage. For over 100 years, the grid generates power for immediate consumption. Any excess is lost, and any shortage results in a brownout.
For all the self-congratulation that European countries do (and the US is starting to do, with the IRA's energy provisions) about their progress, no policy maker seems to understand how woefully short of what is needed we are.
