The Fall Engineering Distinguished Lecture will tackle a topic very much in the news: energy storage. While the overheating of lithium-ion battery in smartphones is currently receiving much attention, energy storage on a large scale is equally important.
The amount of electrical energy derived from photovoltaic and wind sources varies with time, day of the week, season, weather, and other factors. Electrical energy must be stored during times when production exceeds consumption, and returned to the grid when production falls below consumption. Large-scale electrical energy storage is the single most challenging issues that California faces as it moves toward more dependence on renewable sources. Continue reading “Fall Engineering Distinguished Lecture Tackles Energy Storage”