In Europe I feel most talk is still on connecting Norway to say Germany with new electricity lines to utilise Norway's natural pumped storage potential.
Another interesting development recently was the creation of electric diesel. The economics don't seem to make a lot of sense yet but I don't think they've hit the efficiency limits of what is possible yet. The interesting thing is that it's carbon neutral (assuming the energy going into the process is carbon neutral, e.g. when excess renewable energy drives energy prices negative at moments of the day) probably works on a massive scale, and immediately allows existing fleets of combustion engines to become more sustainable. I'm not sure how fast these factories can turn on and off production but I'm assuming it's pretty good.
The efficiency is pretty low, electricity to diesel I've heard of efficiencies of 13%. And then a diesel engine itself is only about 30% efficient, compared to electric engines of > 90%. It makes more sense to invest in storage solutions and an electric car fleet, but if we do get significant excess renewable energy that is difficult to store, combined with ediesel becoming more efficient, then it becomes an interesting idea. Particularly for all the transport that is hard to electrify (airplanes, trucks), carbon neutral synthetic fuel made with renewable electricity could make sense one day.
I'm mostly optimistic about electrifying cars though. The next-gen top electric cars are getting close to ~100 kwh storage (today it's more like 80-90). Cars per capita in OECD countries is probably around 0.6 - 0.7 or so. That's a lot of storage if fully electrified, about 60-70 kwh per capita. Daily residential electricity usage is probably about 10 kwh in OECD countries. Of course that's when you electrify the entire car fleet which is a ridiculously big task (today's new car sales tend to be sub 1% electric), but if you can do 5% within a few decades, you can create multiple hours of storage which would be a huge impact on the ability to balance intermittent energy sources, without having to invest in storage for the sake of storage.
Another interesting development recently was the creation of electric diesel. The economics don't seem to make a lot of sense yet but I don't think they've hit the efficiency limits of what is possible yet. The interesting thing is that it's carbon neutral (assuming the energy going into the process is carbon neutral, e.g. when excess renewable energy drives energy prices negative at moments of the day) probably works on a massive scale, and immediately allows existing fleets of combustion engines to become more sustainable. I'm not sure how fast these factories can turn on and off production but I'm assuming it's pretty good.
The efficiency is pretty low, electricity to diesel I've heard of efficiencies of 13%. And then a diesel engine itself is only about 30% efficient, compared to electric engines of > 90%. It makes more sense to invest in storage solutions and an electric car fleet, but if we do get significant excess renewable energy that is difficult to store, combined with ediesel becoming more efficient, then it becomes an interesting idea. Particularly for all the transport that is hard to electrify (airplanes, trucks), carbon neutral synthetic fuel made with renewable electricity could make sense one day.
I'm mostly optimistic about electrifying cars though. The next-gen top electric cars are getting close to ~100 kwh storage (today it's more like 80-90). Cars per capita in OECD countries is probably around 0.6 - 0.7 or so. That's a lot of storage if fully electrified, about 60-70 kwh per capita. Daily residential electricity usage is probably about 10 kwh in OECD countries. Of course that's when you electrify the entire car fleet which is a ridiculously big task (today's new car sales tend to be sub 1% electric), but if you can do 5% within a few decades, you can create multiple hours of storage which would be a huge impact on the ability to balance intermittent energy sources, without having to invest in storage for the sake of storage.