You may not know that of all the electricity generated about 54% is lost through the miles of transmission cables that carry the electricity via pylons before reaching our homes or businesses. This leaves only 46% of the energy produced in the large plants for us to use in our homes and businesses.
One of the problems is that electricity is not easily stored for use when demand is high. In Barrow in Cumbria the energy giant Centrica is about to build the world’s largest energy storage depot. It will house rows of hundreds of batteries, each the size of a suitcase. Together these batteries will be capable of storing enough energy to power 50,000 homes. Projects like this could store power that is not needed when winds are producing surplus electricity. It could do the same for a summer weekend generating excess solar power.
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