biotech firm with patent promising liquid fuels from solar energy

[4Eyes]

http://www.wales-underground.org.uk/electric/index.shtml

When there is more leccy than is needed, the turbines run in reverse and move water back to the reservoir.

[ergophobe]

This will detail it pretty well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity

BTW, I think electric cars are mostly a boondoggle at the moment (in most of the US, they would be recharged with coal). But they are one of the greatest potential load balancing resources imaginable. Think that every parking lot - municipal garages, large corps, shopping malls - have smart meters and so do all houses. I tell my car to never drain itself below a 50-mile range. Then whereever I go, I plug into the smart meter and, of course, my car has a unique IPv6 ip number, and when the price is below a certain level, I buy (charge) and above a certain price, I sell. So when my car is sitting out in the middle of the day and the solar farm is cranking, I grab a cheap recharge... until the temps climb and the air conditioning kicks in and then I sell.

But there's a lot to solve before this sort of thing becomes a reality - cheap renewable generation, smart and flexible transmission, the ability of end users to either buy or sell and do so on the move with their cars (and the inherent privacy issue to be solved there).

[Drastic]

A local lake is used for cooling 3 nuclear reactors. The dam on the upper end is hydro-electric.

Its kind of neat to be on the water and the level change over a couple of hours.

The water coming off the bottom of the upper lake is rather cool in the upper 50s which is nice on a hot day. Also, a river bubbles up sort of out of nowhere, a huge jetski whirlpool, when they use the hydro.

On the other end, where the reactors are, the water is considerably warmer, nice for swimming and skiing on the cooler days. (cue green fish/glowing appendage jokes)