We’re 28.5714285714% of the way up Mount Sustainability! In related news, dividing by seven is hard.
(Math side note: Did you know that when you divide any number one through six by the number seven, you get the same repeating sequence of numbers? For instance, 1/7 = 0.142857142857 and 6/7 = 0.857142857142. Same order of numbers, just with a different starting point. Math is fun!)
Well that just wasted 65 words of my post. Ack! Now I’ve wasted 78 words! Focus John!
Okay, we’ve reached the Renewable Energy front, the third on our journey. Much like the Zero Waste front, this one is reasonably well-traversed. Most people understand that sunlight, gusts of wind, and flowing water don’t send out invoices, so they’ll always be able to outcompete fossil fuel companies on fuel prices. It’s just a matter of penciling out the up-front costs, which is becoming more and more common.
Okay, if I’m being honest, renewable energy sources (at least some of them) have another big challenge: variability. Often, people who question the scalability of renewables argue that the sun doesn’t shine at night and the wind doesn’t blow constantly. This is true, and it’s why billions of dollars are being invested in battery technologies that will hopefully quadruple (or more) the storage capacity of lithium ion batteries. Simply put, if someone successfully invents a superbattery, they will untether renewable energy and fundamentally change how we power the world.
So what do we do in the meantime? Twiddle our thumbs, burn coal and natural gas, and chant “superbattery, superbattery” while dancing around bonfires?
Meh, I'll pass.
It turns out that we already have some remarkably innovative renewable energy storage solutions. Tip of the cap to Drawdown for clueing me in on a cool one: gravitational potential energy.
Here’s the idea. When something is at a high elevation and drops to a lower elevation by the force of gravity, energy is released. Just ask Wile E. Coyote. And when the thing that falls is water through a turbine or a railcar loaded with rocks, we can capture that energy and convert it into electrons on the grid. Moreover, we can generate those electrons on demand and near-instantly.
So where do we get the energy to pump the water or move the railcar upwards to recharge these “batteries” when they are expended? That’s where the renewable energy part kicks in. We can pair these systems with solar panels or wind turbines to power the water pumps and railcar motors, thereby storing the renewable energy as gravitational potential energy. It doesn’t matter if the sun doesn’t always shine or the wind doesn’t always blow. We simply capture and store their energy whenever they are.
While these systems aren’t effective everywhere (you need elevation differences for them to work, for instance), they do demonstrate how creative we can be in coming up with renewable energy solutions. Whether or not a superbattery is on the horizon, I firmly believe the age of renewable energy is upon us.
Up next, Closed-Loop Manufacturing. Have a great week everybody!
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