Introduction
Solar panels are amazing at generating electricity, but they have one major flaw: they only work when the sun is shining. What happens when it gets dark, or when heavy clouds roll in? We spoke with Neha Arora, Co-founder of AmpereHour, about why energy storage is the most critical piece of the renewable energy puzzle.
The Intermittency Challenge
Interviewer: Neha, why is storage suddenly the biggest talking point in the solar industry? Neha Arora: “Solar energy is ‘intermittent.’ This means power generation fluctuates depending on the weather and time of day. As we add more solar to the national power grid, this fluctuation creates instability. If a massive cloud covers a 100-megawatt solar farm, the grid instantly loses power. Storage fixes this by acting as a buffer.”