Batteries will replace transmission as the cheapest way to keep the lights on, and the grid will shrink rather than grow.

Added to korrents 7 Sept 2026 · How quotes work · Something wrong? Tell us

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• In tension with

  Ramping up electric vehicles alongside wind power, roughly 3,000 vehicles per 3 MW turbine, with smart charging, would go a long way to solving the problem of wind fluctuations.

  MacKay’s answer to intermittency was smart charging: roughly 3,000 electric vehicles per 3 MW turbine, soaking up the wind when it blows. Handmer expects stationary batteries to go further and displace transmission itself, pruning the grid rather than balancing it. Both are storage answers to the same problem and they imply opposite things about how much wire to build.

Shared subject first, then similar wording. They may agree or disagree.

• Battery storage is becoming the defining transformative energy technology of the second half of the 2020s, as solar and wind were of the first half. BMBill McKibben13 Aug 2026energybatteries
• Cargo ships can be electrified with a cheap, heavy, low-performance battery, because carrying heavy things cheaply is the one thing ships are good at. AVAustin Vernonby 11 May 2023energybatteries
• Cheap clean energy has broken the old trade-off between raising living standards and cutting environmental harm. CHCasey Handmer11 Oct 2023energybatteries
• Fusion and solar are the two energy sources worth betting on, and solar's limiting problem is batteries and transmission. DHDemis Hassabis23 Jul 2025energybatteries
• High electricity prices are what is killing European industrial competitiveness. HRHannah Ritchie15 May 2025energybatteries

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