44. You Just Might Find - You Get What You Need! (Demand response)
You Just Might Find - You Get What You Need! (Originally published 6/2/22) By far the most popular “Yes, but…” about wind and solar electricity is, “Yes, but what do you do when the wind don’t blow and the sun don’t shine? We need power when we need it, and we need it, well, all the time.” This used to end the discussion. But not any more. Advances in technology, including electricity storage and “demand response” technology, are on target to realistically address the intermittency issue at scale. In the storage arena, battery arrays, hydroelectric plants and pumped hydro will provide part of the answer, storing energy when more is being produced and putting it back onto the grid as needed. But another approach is demand response . Simply put, demand response is a way of controlling demand to respond to supply. Electricity needs to be used or somehow stored at the instant it is generated. Conversely, when electricity is called for, it needs to be sup...