Supply security through solar-wind hybrids
Energy supply stability dominates political and public discourse these days. Although there is broad consensus that we have to complete the transformation to a carbon-free energy supply within the next few decades, there is still some debate about how to get there. Solar and wind are thought too erratic to serve as a foundation for 100% supply security. And because electrochemical power storage systems are far too expensive and will never be powerful enough, anyway, many still dream of a future built on hydrogen or a breakthrough in nuclear fusion. But these scenarios are not without their insurmountable hurdles, according to Martin Schachinger and Volkmar Tetzlaff.
Solar energy, especially photovoltaics, is already widely recognized as the cheapest way to generate energy. Wind is usually a close second – depending on which study you read. But it is still far ahead of all other fossil and nuclear energy sources. But both generation methods on their own have a major drawback in that …
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