We know the problems with chemical batteries and nuke power.....this seems like an environmentally smart way to store energy....

We used metal cans used for honey, nuts, and maple syrup sold in bulk back in the 70s, just fill them with water and stack them up inside a Trombe-Michel wall. Nothing much helped in New England Dec-Feb, but the rest of the year they provided a huge amount of help with heating.

There is progress being made on the electrical storage front. I came across this one a couple of weeks ago. China claims to be developing the technology on a grid level, we'll see. As this video points out, these batteries won't burn:

And not only more accessible, rechargeable and better for the environment - and recyclable!

China is way ahead of us in renewable energy development, coal was killing them especially in Beijing. If it works and can be scaled up the way they think it can, it will solve the problem of intermittent solar and wind energy nicely.

South Australia has installed banks of lithium ion batteries to store excess solar energy and is now a net exporter. It would be far better if a simpler storage system could be found. I don't know where we'd get the water around here, but this would fit our needs--again, if it pans out.

The last update from the power company was 2 years ago and we were getting 42% of our energy from renewables. Battery storage would boost that.

Another technology being explored is deep bore geothermal energy.

And this yet another essential reason that the Democrats have to win across the board in November - continuing to pursue renewable energy. Australia is an important ally of ours - and most of our allies are working on renewable energy. And we know that the Republicans don't care and, as they have before, will abandon these plans and will only make things worse.

I wish I could talk to my Dad about all this - he was an industrial engineer and ran the power company here in northeastern New York - which was a challenge considering the weather we get here. He was big on hydro and accepted nuclear, but didn't trust solar - yet. However, he was on board with Jimmy Carter, actually started dressing a little like him with the vests and sweaters when the president was setting an example about turning your thermostat down.