Climate Skeptics often cite the fact that renewables like wind and solar don’t have constant power flow, and thus need either a nuclear, hyrdo, or coal/gas power plant backup in order to deliver a reliable power supply to the electrical grid.  Proponents often retort with “all we need is better battery technology to store power”.

The Catch-22 of Energy Storage (h/t to WUWT reader Greg in Tips and Notes)

Pick up a research paper on battery technology, fuel cells, energy storage technologies or any of the advanced materials science used in these fields, and you will likely find somewhere in the introductory paragraphs a throwaway line about its application to the storage of renewable energy.  Energy storage makes sense for enabling a transition away from fossil fuels to more intermittent sources like wind and solar, and the storage problem presents a meaningful challenge for chemists and materials scientists… Or does it?