How about this wonderful idea:
Build a high capacity battery that can hold 250kWh of energy each and put about 100-200 at each power station so that during the night when they are burning the coal and wasting the power because its not being used, they can instead store it and deliver it during teh afternoon when the energy curve is at its peak.
Heres another idea:
Use these same batteries at wind and solar farms so that the power they generate is actually viable. Because at the moment, power companies don't like solar or wind power because its intermittent and if the power is intermittent its just takes up space in the lines whether it is generating or not because they have to leave space for the energy so the lines don't get overloaded.
This will also allow wind power (which is the highest in the morning and evening when it is LEAST needed.) to be delivered at a constant rate. Same with solar. Take the average value of the power generation and deliver that.
Here's another idea:
Make these batteries capable of keeping a charge for over 10 years with only a 5% loss each year. And create a device to charge and discharge the batteries that isn't electromagnetic. Electromagnets create eddy currents and heat which is wasted energy and lower efficiency. How bout we try static electricity? No eddy currents or heat there. Pure energy transfer through even a vacuum!
We start changing the energy crisis by making the current power plants even more efficient to lower the amount of coal required to burn daily. Then we make it so wind and solar are base load power sources instead of intermittent energy that power companies hate to deal with.
The answer my friends is all in batteries. Not lead acid, or Nickel Cadmium, or Nickel Metal Hydroxide batteries. But kinetic energy batteries.
That's all folks, I'll be here all week!
