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Cutting-edge technology could harness the universe’s fundamental force to help our green energy transition.
Generating green energy is largely dependent on Earthly forces. When the sun is shining, or the wind blowing and the waves rolling, we’re good.
When skies darken and conditions calm, however, our supply lines of sustainable power are diminished and that’s a problem.
In stark contrast to our carbon neutrality ambitions, we supplement these low yield periods by ramping up the burning of fossil fuels.
The phrase ‘one step forward, two steps’ back comes to mind.
Climate tech points to lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen as two of the most promising avenues to achieve a net zero future, but engineers are also looking for ways to effectively store green energy from renewable sources – so it isn’t intermittently generated and used at that moment.
Today’s #StateofClimate report is a dismal litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption.
We must end fossil fuel pollution and accelerate the renewable energy transition, before we incinerate our only home. https://t.co/QidauIgGKs
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) May 18, 2022
Essentially, we need to find ways to retain clean power when there’s an abundance so it can be released in increments into the grid during calmer periods.
This has long been a bugbear of innovators in the industry, but finally some neat ideas are starting to show promise. The latest, which sounds a little barmy in theory but relatively simple in practice, involves harnessing the limitless force that surrounds us all: gravity.
