Bringing power storage to the people, Panasonic will bring a home-use lithium-ion storage cell to market in fiscal 2011, making it possible for homes to store a week's worth ofelectricity for later use. Panasonic -- along with the recentlyacquired Sanyo -- have already test-manufactured such a battery, whichcould allow for more widespread deployment of eco-friendly butinconsistent modes of power generation.

While generating wind and solar energy is obviously preferable toburning fossil fuels, the fact that they can't generate steadily andconsistently throughout the day and night means that at best they canonly supplement more consistent sources of power. But if households andbusinesses can store excess power when generation is peaking and use itduring periods of low electricity output, we could make renewables alarger part of our energy diet.

Saying that the battery will last "for about one week," asPanasonic's president has, is pretty arbitrary it seems, as differenthouseholds have vastly different energy needs. Even so, batteries canbe strung together into arrays, and something that could last theaverage homestead even a few days would open the door for more solarpanels on roofs, and that can't be bad.

(c) 2009 POPSCI