The Arithmetic of Sustainability - Part 7: Beyond Fossil Fuels

The Arithmetic of Sustainability ← Series Home The preceding analysis has established the contours of a sustainable energy supply for Britain: a mix of indigenous renewables (wind, tide, solar thermal), imported solar power, and dense nuclear fission. However, the arithmetic of generation is only half the challenge. Electricity from fluctuating sources (wind, solar) does not always match the moment-to-moment demand of consumers and industry. ...

Grid management and EVs

The Arithmetic of Decarburization - Part 8: The Gigawatt Gambit: Managing Fluctuations, Storage, and the Electric Vehicle Fleet

The Arithmetic of Decarburization: A Hard Look at the Energy Revolution ← Series Home The Integration Challenge Previous installments established that Austria could, in principle, generate 165 TWh of renewable electricity annually—enough for full decarbonization. But generating enough energy on average is not the same as having enough energy at every moment. The fundamental challenge of high-renewable systems is temporal mismatch: supply and demand rarely align perfectly, and the gap must be bridged by storage, demand flexibility, or interconnections. ...