Massive Buildup of New Generation or Thermal Energy Storage Coming

The North American Electric Reliability Council reports that the demand for electricity is expected to rise 19 percent by 2015, or 141,000 megawatts. The problem is that generation capacity is only anticipated to grow by 6 percent.

People don’t realize how dangerously close we’re moving to not having enough capacity. Needless-to-say, the market will provide some solutions. That is, if supply and demand remain out-of-whack and natural gas prices stay high then other alternative sources of energy will emerge. That gives green energy forms such as wind and solar a leg up.

The logical alternative to this shortage is massive deployment of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) that would act as a shock absorber. The peak demand could be leveled, freeing enough generation for growth without building new plants.  With this shock absorber the current built-in safety factor could also be reduced to supply future demand. 

It’s time to make a decision.  Are we going to keep building generating plants that run at 50% capacity much of the time or are we going to invest in TES to level supply and demand?