Virtual power plants could help lead our energy transition

livemint.com:

While I am not knowledgeable enough to opine on all the various complexities of climate change, I have on occasion reflected in this column on the role that technology can play in easing our transition to renewables. I have often commented on how we might need to make fundamental changes in the way our energy infrastructure is designed. Renewable energy is notoriously fickle.

All it takes for supply to be disrupted is slightly overcast skies or a subtle change in weather that becalms the winds. This means that we will only be able to use the full potential of our renewable energy resources when have in place effective storage solutions to address this intermittency. While some might argue (legitimately, I should add) that it is the responsibility of energy companies to make the required arrangements for it, there is only so much they will be able to do in the short time we have left.

We need more creative solutions. In an earlier column, I suggested that we should think about using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies, so that we can take advantage of the rapidly increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country. Most EVs have battery packs large enough to not only take us to work and back, but also have energy left over to supply the average household with the 15-20 kWh of power it needs in a day.