ABSTRACT
In June 2008, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers published a white paper entitled, “Massive electricity storage” [1]. This paper states that electricity is generated and consumed instantaneously and that the electric power grid essentially has little or no storage capacity to smooth out variations in demand. However, coal-red and nuclear power plants have turbine generators that can deliver continuous and dispatchable power required by consumers, and these power plants can meet shifting demands by utilizing peaking generators or so-called spinning reserves. On the other hand, renewable power generated by wind or solar radiation is intermittent, and massive electric storage (MES) is the critical technology needed if renewable power is to become a major sustainable source. For system stability and load leveling, large-scale stored power is needed, and without suf-cient MES, renewable energy cannot serve as a base-load energy supplier.
