that is not the biggest problem of using wind or solar as the main power source.<br>you can just keep those heavy generators that you already have and use the generator as an engine. or build new ones without a turbine.<br>Using lithium batteries for such purposes is a waste of resources and money. At the current price per kWh of a battery and the amount of cycles you get from such a battery the storage of one kWh costs about 30 cent while creating one kWh from a coal power station is less than 3 cent. <br>And i doubt that all the coal power stations where shut down, they probably just stopped delivering electricity. It takes about 3 days to power up a cold coal power station.,(reply>), More like 6-8 hours, actually. Thermal power plants are slow to startup but not THAT slow.