The World in 2030

210 The World in 2030
the future. The device used to store the power is called a
‘flow battery’. 401 As the New Scientist reported:
For years wind turbines and solar generators have
been linked to back-up batteries that store energy in
chemical form. In the lead-acid batteries most commonly
used, the chemicals that store the energy remain
inside the battery. The difference with the installation
on King Island is that when wind power is
plentiful the energy-rich chemicals are pumped out
of the battery and into storage tanks, allowing fresh
chemicals in to soak up more charge. To regenerate
the electricity the flow is simply reversed. 402
And such batteries may also be developed to store electricity
generated by other forms of renewable energy such as wave
and tidal power. But, for the present, most wind turbines
produce ‘real time’ electricity which must immediately be
distributed and consumed.
Some environmentalists envisage a future in which wind
turbines are mounted on every house and any excess power
is sold back to the electricity distribution system. However,
George Monbiot, who is an enthusiast for the potential of
off-shore commercial wind farms, suggests that the whole
concept of domestic wind turbines for self-sufficiency may
be faulty:
At an average wind speed of 4 metres per second, a
large micro turbine (1.75 metres in diameter is about
as big a device as you would wish to attach to your
home) will produce something like 5 per cent of the