When we think about the transition to renewable energy sources, many of us imagine rooftop solar panels and wind turbine-dotted hills. But it's not just about capturing energy, it's also about keeping it. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with Matt Simon, a Grist senior staff writer, to discuss long-duration energy storage. The transition to renewables for utilities is still very much evolving -- efficiency, intermittency, and storage are among the issues scientists have yet to perfect. Simon shares some ideas for how we can build upon existing technologies to store solar and wind power, with longer capacity than lithium-ion batteries, ranging from reservoirs and caverns to our existing fleet of electric vehicles.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Matt Simon (MS) | 00:23 - We're actually in this really fascinating time where we are better understanding that the Earth is a resource not for extracting the fossil fuels out of it. That's stupid and done. We need to stop doing that now. We're turning more to the energy that is naturally produced by the earth, but also the energy that we can pump underground, for instance, and store down there as a battery. It's a fascinating frontier.

Narrator | 00:48 - When we think about the transition to renewable energy sources, many of us imagine rooftop solar panels and wind turbine-dotted hills. But it's not just about capturing energy, it's also about keeping it. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with Matt Simon, a Grist senior staff writer, to discuss long-duration energy storage. The transition to renewables for utilities is still very much evolving -- efficiency, intermittency, and storage are among the issues scientists have yet to perfect. Simon shares some ideas for how we can build upon existing technologies to store solar and wind power, with longer capacity than lithium-ion batteries, ranging from reservoirs and caverns to our existing fleet of electric vehicles.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:50 - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Matt Simon. Matt is a senior staff writer at Grist. Matt, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Matt Simon (MS) | 01:58 - And thank you for having me. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:00 - It's good to have you back. You have left wired after a dozen or so years there, and congratulations on joining Grist covering climate. How's the transition been so far for you?

Matt Simon (MS) | 02:13 - Thanks. Yeah, it's been fantastic. It's, um, it's amazing to be here with a truly phenomenally talented group of people that are laser focused on climate stuff. So I'm, I'm here covering climate solutions, which I feel like, um, is the most optimistic way, um, for my mental health to be approaching climate coverage this day and age. Um, so I'm feeling surprisingly good. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:37 - I wanted to discuss a piece you've written for Grist recently, which delves into long duration energy storage. We often think of just energy storage as battery storage, and that's a very short-lived type of energy. If you can define long duration energy storage, how the people who run electric grids look at this piece of the puzzle, that would be terrific.

MS | 03:03 - Sure. So the core of the issue here is that as we are deploying more renewables like wind and solar, we need ways to store that energy. So when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining, we need electricity to flow to people's homes. Um, so the idea here that a lot of people have probably heard about by now is that you have these giant banks of lithium ion batteries on the grid. We have, uh, some of these in California already. They have these also in Texas, wherever you're seeing the proliferation of renewables, you're seeing these battery banks pop up. Um, so the idea here is that you, uh, have the sun go down. You're not generating any solar energy. You draw from those battery banks to give people electricity. Uh,