On Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:20:26 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

That is, a battery that could supply the nation's electrical needs for a few
days during a blackout.

Good idea. We could put it in the northern half of Manitoba, which
isn't used anyhow. We could run the cables when they put in that new
pipeline.


The author computes it could be done with a sufficiently large, or
sufficiently numerous, lead-acid batteries. The whole shebang would need
only 5 billion tons of lead. The US has 7 million tons of lead reserves,
while the entire world has approximately 80 million tons.

We'd better get busy looking for more. Chinese toys might be a good place to
start...


(Caution: Real maths in use)
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/...sized-battery/