Powering new electric cars

This has major implications for advocates of renewable energy sources like wind and tidal power, as these are highly variable by their very nature. And if the true potential of renewable forms is ever to be realised then some serious innovation is going to have to take place, to allow this energy to survive into the day.

There is real innovation taking place in this field, and there is some innovation which remains purely theoretical.

One storage solution on the surface of it seems illogical. This involves using energy produced at non-peak times to 'work' in such a way as to make is available at another time. One example of this is the The Llyn Stwlan upper reservoir and dam of the Ffestiniog Pumped Storage Scheme in north Wales. Power generated at non-peak times is used to literally pump the water back up the hill, making the downhill pressure available for use at other times.

A further example of the sort of diverse thinking required to make renewable energy storage work involves utilising electrical consumers themselves. With battery innovation moving fastest in the development of electric vehicles (EVs), why not use these cars themselves as storage facilities?

With these cars plugged into the grid overnight they would serve as ideal hosts, eventually allowing EV owners to sell their extra capacity back to the grid.

This is the sort of two-way solution we will need if we are really to switch to a renewable energy network. It can seem far-fetched, like science fiction even, but then energy consumption is already getting more complicated, and destined to get ever more so.

Scientists warn of the dangers of thinking of energy as a linear commodity, something to be so straightforwardly bought and sold on demand. We may have to alter our driving patterns, driving habits, even our sense of working and community to accommodate the changes coming our way. With emissions targeted to come down by 50% come 2050, some radical thinking is going to be necessary.