China’s Excess Wind Energy (HARVARD MAGAZINE)

by JACOB SWEET | HARVARD MAGAZINE
 

THERE’S A PROBLEM with sustainable energy, and it will only grow with time. Now that wind and solar have become cheaper sources of electricity than fossil fuels in some places, the problem is intermittency—what to do when the wind dies or the sun goes down.

Storing extra energy in batteries can alleviate some intermittency problems, but Butler professor of environmental studies Michael McElroy believes that using renewable energy produced by utilities in working power grids to make hydrogen—a portable, storable fuel source that produces only water as a byproduct when burned in a fuel cell—is a better solution.

Read the full article in Harvard Magazine