Batteries in cars
Actually, if someone can get the meters and APIs properly organised (and I don't mean the mess that is the current "smart-meter" roll-out), then electric cars are JUST what's needed to help balance the grid when fed largely from intermittent sources. This is because 90% of the time, an electric car owner, charging at home, doesn't NEED to be charging it at specific times - (s)he simply needs it to average enough charge to handle the daily commute over the course of a week - if it happens not to get charge on a windless night, but then gets a charge instead the following windy/bright evening then that's fine. Yes, there are times (before a long trip) when the car MUST be charged, and this is not a panacea, but having a large number of plugged in cars, READY to charge but not demanding it is a great way to both reduce consumption at times of peak stress on the system, and also to provide a useful "sink" to take the energy when the other option would be curtailment of generation.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
