Innovative thinking

 

Using the current cause of climate change, carbon dioxide, to address one of the problems with energy systems that are not generating carbon dioxide (i.e., wind and solar) is a good idea.

The main problem with wind and solar is that they can generate electricity and over-produce electricity when the Sun is shining and the wind is blowing, but they can't do that when the Sun isn't shining (for solar) and the wind isn't blowing (for wind).

So when they are over-producing, how can you store it?   Well, in a battery.  And this is a different kind of battery.

World’s first CO2 battery is ‘missing piece’ in renewable energy puzzle

How does it work?  Like this:

"The battery works by condensing CO2 and storing it as a liquid under pressure. When electricity is needed, the liquid CO2 is heated and converted into a gas, which powers a turbine."

That little bit of heat used to convert the liquid to gas should be a lot less than the energy produced by the phase change from liquid to gas, so this should work (and the article says there's a working megawatt plant on the island of Sardinia, so apparently it does work).

Now all we need is commercial level nuclear fusion.