November 29, 2016

When Will Home Energy Storage Be Affordable? [Podcast]

How much electric energy storage would it take to run the average home for 24 hours? When will it be economical to locally store several days of electric energy for our homes? These two questions were explored earlier this month on the new “CrowdScience” podcast by the BBC World Service.

By Melissa C. Lott

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

How much electric energy storage would it take to run the average home for 24 hours? When will it be economical to locally store several days of electric energy for our home?

These two questions were explored earlier this month on the new “CrowdScience” podcast by the BBC World Service. Each week, this podcast brings questions submitted by its listeners to researchers around the world who are hunting for the answers. Topics have already included the potential to power our homes with lightning, the origin of viruses and how they helped shape prehistoric humans, and what might be out there beyond the edges of our universe.

For this episode on energy storage, presenter Marnie Chesterton** took her listener’s questions* to two national research facilities – The National Grid Scale Energy Storage Lab at University College London and the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. Along the way, Marnie checked in with the author of this blog post as well as University of Texas at Austin’s Professor John Goodenough, who is credited with the identification and development of the lithium ion battery.

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**This podcast episode was produced by Jen Whyntie.

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