One of the drawbacks investors and utilities have found with
solar and wind power is that they are “variable.” Simply put:
they can’t generate electricity when the sun’s not shining or
the wind isn’t blowing. That’s problematic because we’ve grown
accustomed to getting energy whenever we want it. Flick a switch
and the lights should go on, regardless of whether it’s sunny or
windy outside. In the past, utilities believed that they had to
compensate for this variability by installing more traditional,
fossil-fueled power plants. The more wind or solar power on the
grid, the thinking went, the greater the need for backup
generating facilities to be there when the wind or sun wasn’t.
Enter RMI’s Energy & Resources Team. Over the past year, Senior
Consultant Lena Hansen has led a series of research projects to
rethink the implications of wind and solar’s variability. In the
process, she and her colleagues are re-evaluating the economics
of putting more renewable energy on the grid. The key, according
to Hansen, i