Take a Cool Guess—The Fun Quiz on Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability. Today’s Topic: Storing Solar Energy

Question:  Everybody loves solar energy (and wind too), since it’s abundant, clean, and increasingly inexpensive. Yet, it’s not always available when the demand for power is greatest, which means that a lot of it cannot be used.  What percentage is, in fact, wasted?  What’s being done to deal with this?

Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.

Relevance:  If wind and solar farms are producing more energy than the electric grid needs, the energy goes to waste. Worse, if electricity demand spikes during periods when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, utilities will often fire up “peaker plants” to bring extra power online quickly. These are usually powered by fossil fuels and emit large amounts of CO2 relative to ordinary power plants.