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They’re better than you might think.
Dear Reader,
Today we recognize some Climate Champs that are key to our clean energy transformation because, as the cranks and deniers like to remind us, the wind doesn’t always blow, the sun doesn’t always shine.
Have the clean energy boosters ignored this reality? Of course not. “Batteries break that tyranny of time,” explains Chris Hatch in his Zero Carbon newsletter. “They can absorb excess power at noon and discharge [it] through the evening peak, all while stabilizing the grid in fractions of a second, and helping ride out unexpected disruptions.” He points out that the batteries themselves don’t produce electricity. But they do produce flexibility. “Around the world, batteries are turning night into day by storing solar power. They harness the breeze and release it when the winds calm.”
What’s more, the cost for batteries is plummeting — more than 90% in just the past decade, Hatch explains, fueling massive demand. Fortunately, our innovators are responding to the moment with new and better battery technology, which is good, because batteries currently rely on extraction of rare earth minerals, which earns them a bad rep. (Fossil fuels are similarly criticized for the damage their extraction does to the earth, though of course burning them adds a heaping helping of planetary destruction.) And batteries are moving ever closer toward a day when they are entirely created from recycled materials.
“The battery revolution has arrived,” Chris Hatch proclaims. Indeed it has. Which is why batteries are Dot’s Climate Champs.
Also … don’t miss today’s total solar eclipse and the Perseid meteor shower.
Chargingly,
Dot
Use the entirety of ingredients to avoid food waste.
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