Is Storage Necessary for Renewable Energy?

mdsolar writes: Physicist and energy expert Amory Lovins, chief scientist at The Rocky Mountain Institute, recently released a video in which he claims that renewable energy can meet all of our energy needs without the need for a fossil fuel or nuclear baseload generation. There’s nothing unusual about that — many people have made that claim — but he also suggests that this can be done without a lot of grid-level storage. Instead, Lovins describes a “choreography” between supply and demand, using predictive computer models models to anticipate production and consumption, and intelligent routing to deliver power where it’s needed. This “energy dance,” combined with advances in energy efficiency, will allow us to meet all of our energy needs without sacrificing reliability.

It’s a short video — I’ll let you watch it and then I’ll make some comments about it:

Even water power is renewable.

[Z00L00K]

Even water power is renewable, and it can be used to compensate for uneven production from solar and wind.

The big problem is the grid - can it cope with swing in production at the scale that wind and solar can cause?

Stupidity

[Mr D from 63]

This is the stupidest video I have seen in quite some time. Clearly, if you ignore how the grid actually works, and ignore overall cost, and ignore any localized demand needs, anything is 'possible'. This physicist could have at least spoken with one electrical engineer before he made an idiot of himself.