Aternative #2 - Flow Cell Batteries

One of the big problems with the electric grid is that the electricity has to be produced immediately as demand warrants. Since the demand for electricity varies, a lot of excess capacity has to be built to handle the peaks. Ways are needed to store energy/electricity.

One way to store energy is a "pumped storage" system. During periods when demand is low and excess energy is available water from a lower reservoir is pumped to a higher reservoir. When electricity is critically needed (peak demand) the water is run through turbines to generate electricity. There is at least one pumped storage facility in New York State http://www.nypa.gov/facilities/blengil.htm , but adding new ones are problematic because few people want new lakes (& flooded land areas).

Here is an interesting article on using very large batteries to store enough energy to actually power the grid for a few hours. The price is $2 million per megawatt. $2.1 billion dollars would buy 1050 MW of batteries. http://www.terrawatts.com/battery-grid.html