It’s Sunday. I’ve read the second letter this week from people who are totally mystified about how renewables work. Both wind towers and solar panels produce electricity, cheaper than any other method, and far cheaper than nuclear, with no emissions or toxic waste. So far so good. But the sun doesn’t work at night. That’s where batteries come in handy. Just as you can see at night using your trusty flashlight, powered by batteries, and you can drive an electric car which has batteries, you can power your house, your town, and entire cities with batteries. Large batteries.

It was proven years ago in Australia that renewables with batteries are still far cheaper than any other method. Right now, there are four huge battery plants under construction in the U.S. Tesla already runs what was at the time the largest plant in the world, in Nevada. A battery recycling plant is now under construction in South Carolina; there are others operating. An interesting factoid is that all of these grid and car batteries use a double A (AA) size battery unit, linking hundreds or thousands of these together. If anyone is interested in learning more about renewable energy, look at geoharvey.com. George is a retired engineer in Brattleboro who posts 10-15 articles daily on all types of renewables all over the world. A great resource.

Bob Irving

Salisbury

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