Know-nothings claim renewable energy can be backed up with batteries. Nothing resembling it is remotely possible. It would be like storing the oceans in water tanks.

What electrical utilities are using batteries for is switching assistance and load leveling. When switching heavy currents, surges can destroy equipment or create uncontrollable oscillations. Batteries can be used to solve that problem by storing and releasing energy rapidly.

Load leveling means increasing the available energy to prevent decrease in voltage when variations occur in usage.

So utilities are now acquiring batteries for those purposes; and know-nothings assume the batteries are being used to back up renewables during darkness at nights or wind not blowing. It's not possible to store that much energy in batteries.

Look at car batteries. They weight about twenty pounds or more for a three second pulse at twelve volts to start an auto. That's not a picosecond of utility scale electricity at hundreds of thousands of volts.

It's unbelievable how ignorant know-nothings can be, even when critics try to explain their errors. It points to a breakdown of the education system. It also indicates the tendency to not explain anything. As social problems increase, everything gets darker, because businesses are afraid of reactions, when information is available.

It shows why openness and accountability are essential for functionality of social structures. People need to be properly aligned upon social complexities; and it can't happen in the dark.