There is a lot of movement in the energy sector in Europe. The market has been deregulated, meaning that state based distribution of energy is denigrated in favor of a market based approach.
From some, that signifies a moment towards a different kind of power storage; knowledge. How to generate, store and distribute energy? There is a wider aperture than a combination of solar PV and some kind of battery storage. This is a first step into the energy vortex.
Patterns of resilience
Like all commercial businesses, energy has its own terminology; “PV” (photo-voltaic), inverters, ESS (energy storage systems) and batteries. Language can mystify and obfusticate as much as illuminate or explain. There are layers of context that you miss when you dive immediately. Most modern systems are built around immediacy; instant response, instant supply, always on. This creates a dynamic, a very fragile, technological, one. Market forces exacerbate this, not counter it.
Instant layer (seconds – minutes)
Most older systems were built around seasonal needs. That theme still exists, even if we whizz past it on the autostrada. Think of a resilient energy system as strata or layers, rather than a single device (We have a similar dynamic in IoT projects). The BESS (battery energy storage layer) allows you to store sufficient energy for the instant layer. This is where batteries shine; they are fast, expensive, fragile, and tightly managed.
Operational layer (hours)
The operational layer sits one up, (or one down), from there. This is where most systems quietly fail; boilers, piping joints, thermal buffers, old wiring, un-scheduled loads, cooling systems getting fried on hot days. This layer deals with routine variability, often fails when you need it to work. Neglect, low technical knowledge and inconvenient access points; “…we don’t need to pull it out yet, let’s keep an eye on it.” That pause is rarely priced correctly.
Infrastructural layer (Weeks)
Beyond batteries is a different kind of storage layer. This is the infrastructural storage layer; local water storage and pipework, fuel reserves, thermal mass, insulation, transport infrastructure, local markets, and building build quality. This is infrastructural resilience that supports community power. Look at a neat and tidy mountain village as winter approaches; drying, chopped, logs under sheltering eaves, close to hand, … ready for instant use.
Strategic layer (Months – Years)
Above this is another layer; more strategic in orientation. This is far longer term and addresses behavioral expectations, supply and demand, social stability and tenure. This layer only works when systems are legible, where trust exists, and people understand why they are waiting.
This layer addresses land use, building orientation, crop choices, infrastructural placement and redundancy decisions. It is why rural communities often reject “eyesore” wind generation projects designed around government incentives and why farmers take a special interest in upstream fish kills. Compare cities, and their footloose rentier classes?
The reservoir is an archetype and metaphor. A quiet, but profound implication: readiness is anti-extractive. It does not squeeze, it buffers. It absorbs shocks without converting them into crises. It is why they resist monopolization, frustrate short-term opportunists, look inefficient on paper, yet endure in reality. Systems that know how to wait outlast those that only know how to react. And waiting, it turns out, is a form of power we’ve almost forgotten how to build.
“A civilization’s true energy is not what it holds,
Mr. Holmes
but how long it can remain unhurried.”
