Is 100% renewable electricity achievable?

In a context marked by climate change, the need to “decarbonize energy” by getting rid of all fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) has become a strategic axis in the global energy transition policy.

Faced with this climate emergency, sectors based on renewable energies (mainly wind, CSP and photovoltaic) are in full expansion, yet the massive integration of renewable energies poses problems of intermittence and continuity of supply.

To ensure a continuous supply of electricity, several relatively efficient technologies exist :

✔ the conversion of electricity into gas (power to X), which converts electricity into hydrogen or synthetic methane, which can then be converted back into electricity; ✔ pumped energy transfer stations (WWTPs), which pump water from one basin to a second located higher up, which can be used to generate electricity; ✔ Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), which compresses air in a very high pressure tank and then injects it with gas into a combustion chamber where the whole operates a turbine and an alternator.