Reliability: Renewables
As the use of solar and wind power grows and their costs decrease, engineers are working to improve their reliability for more effective use in a city grid. Watch this video, which features Chinese research into finding the most effective battery technology to address the greatest shortcoming of solar and wind power: dependence on the weather.
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Solar and wind are intermittent sources of energy. This means that when the Sun is shining, PV cells can generate electricity; likewise, when the wind is blowing hard enough, turbine blades can turn, spinning the generator housed atop the tower. But when weather conditions aren’t cooperating, power output is limited or nonexistent.
Now, use Highlight It to identify parts of the text in the video transcript that relate to intermittency and how batteries address this.
