- Many ways exist to store energy, and more prototypes are needed. We could meet the goal of 100% renewables in 10 years if we included storage. The U.S. has this same issue as the U.K. Take the money being spent on coal and shift it to energy storage. -Editor
Government urged to power up support for giant batteries
The UK will be at increased risk of power blackouts if it does not increase investment in energy storage technologies, including emerging battery systems capable of storing megawatts of power. That is the stark warning from the international Electricity Storage Association (ESA), which said last week that the UK and Irish governments need to deliver a huge increase in energy storage capacity if they are to meet EU targets requiring them to generate around 50GW from renewable sources by 2020. Delegates at a meeting of the ESA in London last week said that while the UK government had introduced wide-reaching incentive schemes to encourage the development of renewables, there were no such incentives in place to promote the storage technologies necessary to make wind farms and other variable energy sources technically feasible. There is an urgent need to demonstrate alternative approaches such as batteries, flywheels and compressed air storage systems.
For conferences and a professional organization one can join- http://www.energystorage.org/
For information on large batteries from a Japanese company- http://www.ngk.co.jp/english/products/power/nas/index.html
2. http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2235668/government-urged-power-support

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The breakthrough of using batteries to store wind energy
Wind energy will become much larger as an energy source, with the ability of combining batteries to store wind power. Xcel Energy is one of two US utilities, which are testing a sodium sulphur battery to store wind energy in Southern Minnesota. For renewable energy such as intermittent wind, the sodium sulphur battery is going to be judged a great success. That’s because wind turbines only generate power when the wind blows, meaning they need backup, or “firming” power, such as peaking natural gas. With the Japanese battery, the need for other peaking power is reduced. The use of batteries allows wind power to be stored when prices for power are cheap, and sold at peak prices in the afternoon to create a win win for wind power. The (NAS) battery is made up of “twenty 50-kilowatt modules. The battery is roughly the size of two semi trailers and weighs approximately 80 tons. The battery is able to store about 7.2 MW hours of electricity.
http://blocksindicator.com/2009/01/the-breakthrough-of-using-batteries-to-store-wind-energy/