Home Power Storage
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2016
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How much electric energy storage would it take to run the average home for 24 hours? Also: When will it be economical to locally store several days of electric energy for our home? Listener Gus in Texas, USA, wants to know – especially because he’s one of many people around the world who sometimes face lengthy power cuts.
Presenter Marnie Chesterton takes Gus’s question to energy experts. She heads to two national research facilities: The National Grid Scale Energy Storage Lab at University College London, and the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago – which originated from the early stages of the Manhattan Project. On the way, Marnie finds out where the word ‘battery’ came from, discovers why our mobile phone batteries gradually die with age, and hears how the next generation of power storage could change the world.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Jen Whyntie
(Picture: Isolated cabin at night Credit: Ed Jones/AFP/GettyImages)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello there. You have chosen to download an edition of Crowd Science from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:05.6 | On behalf of the team, I'd like to congratulate you on your excellent taste. |
| 0:09.6 | Happy listening and if you are inspired to ask us a science question you want answered, details |
| 0:15.0 | on how to do so are at the end of the show. |
| 0:17.8 | Hello and welcome to Crowd Science on the BBC World Service. I'm Marnie Chesterton. This is a show where |
| 0:26.7 | we investigate your questions about life, Earth and the universe and this week we have a great question from listener Gus. |
| 0:35.0 | Hi Crowd Science I'm Gus and I'm calling from Austin, Texas in the US. |
| 0:40.0 | My question is, how much electric energy storage would it take to run the average home for 24 hours? |
| 0:47.0 | Also, when will it be economical to locally store several days of electric energy for our home. |
| 0:53.0 | So this week we're looking at storing electricity for the home. |
| 0:59.0 | I know just the place to go. |
| 1:01.0 | Let's get out of the office. |
| 1:03.0 | Give me a moment to grab my coat. Mm rain. Stand over there. Okay, go. So a two-part question from Gus this week. Goodo, let's start with the last part. |
| 1:24.4 | When will we be able to store enough electricity at our homes |
| 1:28.8 | to run them for a few days? |
| 1:30.6 | Now to answer this, we need to take a short walk around the corner from the BBC |
| 1:34.7 | offices. It's not laziness, honest its energy efficiency, to the impressive |
| 1:39.8 | sounding national grid scale energy storage Lab at University College London. |
| 1:48.0 | Let's deal with the first part of Guss's question |
| 1:51.0 | whilst we're on the way there. |
| 1:52.0 | How much electric storage would it take to run |
| 1:55.2 | the average home for 24 hours? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.