We had research show that you can offset storage with capacity to some degree. [0] Some numbers: 100% renewable energy with a capacity of 340% would require 8%

We had research show that you can offset storage with capacity to some degree. [0] Some numbers: 100% renewable energy with a capacity of 340% would require 8% storage just for Germany, 3.8% for Europe (due to larger area which means more diverse weather). Also 8% for Europe using no solar and more wind instead. The 340% capacity is needed to get to the 100% coverage since there is more downtime compared to old energy which had 180% in 2007. If we go to 390% capacity (which corresponds to 170 GW additional production as calculated for Germany) we only need 0.9% storage. Depending on the relative pricing of additional capacity and storage, the price for building the whole infrastructure can go down by half. (The upper limit given in numbers is of the same order of magnitude as Europe's GDP in 2009, 12·10^12 €) [0] (German) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/piuz.201201301/abstract;jsessionid=6DA58A33516AF34DC77811097ABDA1C8.f04t03 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/piuz.201201301/ab...