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Course: NOVA Labs > Unit 1
Lesson 5: Energy- Growing appetites, limited resources
- Growing appetites, limited resources quiz
- Energy defined
- Energy defined quiz
- Putting energy to use
- Putting energy to use quiz
- Never-ending supply
- Never-ending supply quiz
- Solar power
- Solar power quiz
- Wind power
- Wind power quiz
- Solving the storage problem
- Solving the storage problem quiz
- Toward a smarter grid
- Toward a smarter grid quiz
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Solving the storage problem
Although we’ve found ways to generate electricity from renewables, storing energy for future use isn’t so easy. Why is this, and what strategies are engineers using to solve the storage problem?
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- At1:50when it was talking about that big battrey are they talking about the powerplant?(3 votes)
- Solar energy is radiant energy emitted by the sun. It is gathered by solar panels.(1 vote)
- can't we use reservoirs that would pump up then drain down for kinetic energy?(2 votes)
- At1:20, the video states that electricity can't be stored directly, but isn't that how capacitors work?(1 vote)
- It is actually stored in an electrostatic field. See this wikipedia article for more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor#Energy_storage(2 votes)
- what about alternating the different types of renewable energy through the course of the day? Solar during day time, Tidal during night time, etc. Since it kind of is a renewable resource, why store it when you can have more limitlessly? Small gadgets can use batteries which can be recharged with renewable energy, and how about cracking down on the use of fossil fuels only for emergency or special situations?(1 vote)
- How do you store electricity as potential energy? Wouldn't it just dissipate?(0 votes)
- The system basically makes use of gravity to store energy. When available, excess power on the grid is used to pump water from the lower reservoir to the higher one, there by storing energy as potential energy. When needed, the water from the higher reservoir is made to turn the turbine blades to generate electricity.(1 vote)