Forget batteries, just use a freezer

One of the ongoing liabilities of wind power is its intermittency. When the wind doesn't blow, you don't have electricity. Battery storage systems are still much to expensive or inefficient to store electricity during the sometimes long periods when the wind doesn't blow. But the Netherlands may have come up with a solution - using refrigerated warehouses to store energy.

These massive buildings often store food and other perishable products and are already dotting the landscape of industrialized society. By having the warehouses drop the temperature by a single degree Celsius in the evening (when the wind blows but grid demand is low) and letting the temperature rise one degree Celsius in the daytime, the warehouses essentially act like large batteries, storing the energy from onsite wind turbines and reducing demand during peak daytime periods.

While initially cool to the idea, rumor has it that the warehouses are warming to it.