THE HEAT VAULT
We've lived on the edge for some time. Now we must switch from depleting resources for our energy needs to sources which are renewable.
Producing energy is one thing, having it there when most needed is another. To secure this we need storage. Lots of it. For long periods. Including whole seasons.
So far, storage is for electricity. And it's in man-made devices that work for minutes to days at most. There is an alternative. A big alternative.
Rocks are exceptionally good at storing heat. They have done for 4.5 billion years.
Rather than extracting fossil energy in small quantities in isolated locations, we can store vast quantities of heat energy underground, in natural rocks, everywhere.
Then we can use the energy in whatever form we choose.
Immediately or decades later.
O N T H E E D G E
W E L C O M E T O
T H E H E A T V A U L T
S E C U R I N G E N E R G Y . N A T U R A L L Y
You would be forgiven for thinking that energy is mainly to do with keeping the lights on.
It isn’t.
Energy consumption in many countries is dominated by heating and cooling, not electricity.
And heating creates one third of our carbon emissions.
We need much more than refinements to electricity technology.
We need radical new thinking about the Heat Economy.
T H E R E N E W A B L E S F U T U R E
Most major economies have pledged to transition to an energy mix dominated by renewables, principally solar and wind
R E N E W A B L E S W O R K
E X C E P T W H E N T H E Y D O N' T
O N
O F F
O N
O F F
E N E R G Y T R A N S I T I O N
Six facts lead to the conclusion that our renewables future will require vast energy storage
1 Solar and Wind are highly intermittent producers of electricity which can't supply to meet demand
2 The increase in renewables in the energy mix will lead to even greater instability in the future
3 National grid systems cannot manage overproduction of power leading to massive wasted energy through curtailment
4 Significant sums are spent to subsidise producers not to produce electricity
5 Energy storage needs to be greater than a half-day everywhere to reduce long duration gaps in supply
6 Even if renewable systems are built at dramatic overcapacity, which will be costly, there will still be hundreds to thousands of hours of gaps in supply each year
