Energy Stability With Battery Packs.

Whoa, this is an interesting concept. People are down on some kinds of alternative energy because they can be inconsistent and are not on-demand sources. If you have a cloudy day you'll generate less solar power. Or if there's no wind, you'll get less wind power. And the flip side is that you may end up generating more power than you need, but don't have any way to store it.

This article on plug-in hybrids pitches solutions all over the place. If plug-in hybrids were mainstream enough in the US, electric companies could benefit from stability and use a wider variety of sources. First, the electric providers should be pushing for plug-in hybrids because they will sell more electricity, which means more profit. (out of the oil companies pockets) They've over built production facilities to deal with usage spikes, so most of the time these factories are wasting overhead. By incentivising off-peak charging they could make full use of the capital expenditure they've made.

With higher profits, they could justify cleaner electricity improvements like coal plant upgrades or even starting alternative energy production. The plug-ins will help them again there. They can act as an energy buffer, using surplus energy at low demand hours and even offering it back to the grid when demand spikes or if an alternative source has a sub-par day. Think about it, millions of high quality storage batteries keeping our energy supply and consumption in collusion.

Some of the proposals integrate a "car IP" so that when you plug into the grid your account is credited or debited no matter where you are. So wherever your car is parked it is contributing to the communal power supply. If there is a natural disaster or emergency that cut power to regions, the cars could be used to keep essential systems running. And even if you sold all your electricity back to the community, you could still drive when you came back to your car using the gasoline supplement.

This may seem like quite the ambitious endeavor but its the best argument for a hybrid I've ever heard.

• Technology Review: How Plug-In Hybrids Will Save the Grid