Energy Storage Possibilities: Open Discussion

Hi All

Being one of the 'save the earth' guys, I follow developments in renewable energy sources with great interest. As far as power generation is concerned, i feel that there is no reason not to adopt solar, wind, or marine current turbines for all our future power needs. However, Here in South Africa, politicians embrace nuclear power as the solution to future energy requirements, with the new Pebble Bed (what a cosy wording! ) reactor hailed as inherently safe. What the censored media fails to talk about is : where we intend to dump the nuclear waste.

Anyhow, one argument i can not fail the nuke-lobby on is that solar and wind are not consistent and require a backup for calm or cloudy days - a definitive advantage for the ever-radiant uranium..

Unless all possibilities of power storage are explored and developed, which is the key to broadbased use of solar power in all its forms (wind, waves, currents, direct sunlight ).

Pumped storage schemes, flywheel storage, nothing has as yet shown much viable impact.

This discussion is there to think-tank all options, bring up weird and wonderful ideas and concepts, get the people involved who can actually calculate the viability of generation/storage systems versus the dreaded nuke which we conveniently pass on to future generations to deal with later. (sorry , kids you can't cultivate the desert because we dumped some radioactive waste here - try again in 350 years )

I hear of crystalisation of sodium-sulphate solutions like in heat packs, some clay pebble system to store heat without great losses, decentralized systems to serve rural communities or even single households-employing organic rankine cycle generators, etc.

Please add your comments and suggestions, links, show actual projects, etc.

Thanks