Solar power is great as long as the sun is shining. Wind's just fine until it's calm. If we're going to use renewable sources like these as the basis of our next-generation power grid, how will we handle the times when they aren't producing?
We need a way to store that energy, for a few hours to a few days, so that we can damp out the mismatched timing between generation and demand. Pumped storage is probably the best currently available technology for that.
There has been a lot of backlash lately whenever the idea of building a new power plant comes up. We're shooting ourselves in the foot, though, if we reject every proposal that comes along. If we insist on no nuclear, no coal, no natural gas, no wind, no solar, no large-scale biofuels and no more hydro dams, there simply aren't any sources of power left for us to run our society with.
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