When Batteries Get A Face Lift, So Do Renewables

Short Wave

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Batteries are everywhere. They're in our phones, our remote controls, smart-watches, electric cars and so much more. They could also be the solution to a problem that renewable energy companies have faced for years: How to store the mass amounts of energy they produce for later use. Some companies are using batteries to make renewable energy accessible 24/7. Today, we dig into how the technology is rapidly progressing with Cooper Katz McKim, a producer from fellow NPR podcast The Indicator from Planet Money.

Listen to The Indicator's three-part battery series.

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Transcript

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0:18.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:22.9	Hey, shortwaver's Emily Kwong here with Cooper Katz, McKim, a producer at The Indicator from Planet Money, as he is...
0:29.2	Wait, what are you doing, Cooper?
0:33.5	Oh, Emily, hi.
0:35.3	That's just me, turning on and off the lights at a facility in California where there is battery power energizing the grid. Like literally holding energy and then releasing it onto the grid that powers all our homes.
0:48.0	Interesting. But in California, I'd expect energy to be coming from places like natural gas or hydro. You're telling me batteries are in the mix?
0:55.1	Grid scale battery storage is surprisingly oftentimes the second largest source of energy on a given day in
1:00.7	California. I didn't know that battery storage could be used at that level. I mean, just a few years ago,
1:05.7	it was unimaginable. Grid scale storage like this, it was basically a dream technology for renewable companies, a what-if scenario.
1:12.9	Right, and those companies historically have been using technologies at the whim of the weather.
1:18.4	If the sun doesn't shine, solar energy isn't so great.
1:20.7	If the wind doesn't blow, exactly.
1:22.2	And battery storage, it changes that equation.
1:25.4	Right, because you can store energy inside a battery somehow. And then tap into it
1:29.5	whenever it's needed. Well, that dream tech is now very much mainstream. Around 2020 to 2021,
1:37.1	battery storage capacity jumped 230% across the U.S. Oh, wow. More and more was added in 22, 23, and it really took off, particularly in California.
1:48.0	To see it for myself, I showed up to a site called Cal Flats in Central California.
1:52.3	It's this 2,900-acre plot of land just covered in solar panels.
	...

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