Energy demand and storage

In the previous chapters, we have always calculated how much energy is available over the year from the individual energy sources, but we have not taken into account an important aspect. Especially wind and solar energy have the essential disadvantage that the production depends strongly on the weather and sometimes fluctuates strongly. How to deal with these fluctuations will be explained in this chapter.

We have assumed that primary energy demand will not change, but have had little discussion of how new technologies such as electric cars or power-to-liquid, heat pumps, or storage demand will affect energy demand. Consideration of these issues can be incorporated into traditional physics education at various points. For example, one can use the evaluation of power-to-liquid and electric cars as an introductory task and motivation to efficiency.