This is interesting:

Seems like the UK is getting more serious about battery farms now 

QuoteEnergy storage firm Pivot Power has announced plans for a £25 million 'grid-scale' battery and electric vehicle charging hub on the outskirts of Southampton.

The site will be the first of a proposed 45 location operated by the company, it says, that will combine large-scale battery storage with rapid charging facilities for electric vehicles.

QuoteTest Valley borough council has given the company permission to install a 50MW battery at Nursling electricity substation at a cost of up to £25 million, which it expects to be operational by July 2019.

https://www.airqualitynews.com/2018/07/23/plans-for-southampton-battery-and-ev-charging-sites-unveiled/

Another battery energy storage system, charge the batteries when the electricity is cheaper and use it at peak times, another smart idea   

Also some more info about smart meters.

Rethinking Electricity, interesting topic I'm interested in.  Really to much information presented in the last two vids to comment on.  Nice to see these projects moving forward.
Carl2

I'm glad you find the topic interesting Carl 

I think it's going to be one of the biggest changes we see in the 21st century and should help the human race towards a cleaner future.

We can't all work in the sector but we can all do our bit in our every day lives. 

I think this could be good news and another step in the right direction.

QuoteScottish Power will become the first major UK energy company to generate all its electricity from wind power instead of coal and gas, after selling its final gas and hydro stations to Drax.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45873785

Found this on solid state batteries. Not sure where they're at and no commercial product... yet.

The last I heard, wish I could recall where it was but one of the companies developing solid state batteries had a working prototype that charged very quickly and had a larger capacity than standard lithium iron, it had a problem though, it would discharge itself far too quickly, leaving you with a flat battery in just a few hours or days.

This TED talk is slightly off topic as it is talking about all energy, not just electricity, but I thought it gives some good ideas.

I see the author of the video has passed away

RIP  David MacKay

Interesting video but quite old now, the UK has already got around 3 to 4 X more renewable energy than was stated in the video, also solar panels are more efficient now, wind farms are fitted out at sea, bio fuel in cars ? no no no, Electric cars are here NOW. Lets also not forget energy storage which is starting to happen.

It's hard to see into the future but nice to see how far we have come since the video was made 

I have attached an image of the UK's power mix taken today at 9pm, no solar as it's night time.

NOTE: 53% low carbon electricity 
0% coal and only 35% gas, a lot better than the 90% stated in the video. We are getting there 

The 90% was total energy, so heating, transport, industry etc.

The main thing I took from the vid was "we can't do it all with green energy". Our country's not big enough. We need to cut down as well and possibly fusion?

Quote from: Snowcrash on February 12, 2019, 20:15:14 PM
"we can't do it all with green energy". Our country's not big enough.

There is a lot of sea around our country, I didn't hear him mention any of the windfarms we have out there   

Quote from: Data on February 12, 2019, 21:16:23 PMI didn't hear him mention any of the windfarms we have out there   

That's not surprising, really. At the time that vid was made, you probably didn't have a tenth of the number of wind turbines running that you do now.

Yes exactly Dave  

The video is called a "reality check" I think it's time for a rethinking of that "reality". Technology has already come a long way in such a short space of time, we are still building wind farms, hydro power is coming, battery storage including "car to grid" technology will happen too, none of that was taken into account in the vid. Will we ever get to 100% renewable? Maybe not but I think we can get close  

Quote from: Snowcrash on February 12, 2019, 20:15:14 PM
The 90% was total energy, so heating, transport, industry etc.

Lets have a little look at them then:

Heating, efficient electric heat-pumps can be used.

Transport, electric cars, hydrogen powered heavy goods vehicles, trains, ships.

Industry, this is an interesting one, much of our industry uses electricity, that is already taken into account in our electricity mix charts posted above, some industries do still use gas I acknowledge that.   

Once we stop refining oil we will save a huge amount of power too      

  Being so old I still remember the days when the US was getting so much wood from the trees in South America and a lot of people got upset saying leave the trees in the rain forest alone, no one listened.  As today even the President doesn't take the climate change seriously.  So at one time we had plants use out waste carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen, populations  grow producing more carbon dioxide and plant life declines converting less oxygen.  Possibly a way to change carbon dioxide to oxygen would be nice. Something for the chemists to do rather than make drugs that may cause who know what.
Carl2