The energy transition embodies several important trends. Chief among them are the transition of the electric grid from fossil-based to renewable energy resources, and the shift from cars powered by internal combustion engines to cars powered by batteries. Both involve electricity but, to the casual eye, they may not seem to have much in common. A closer look and a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggest that, in fact, they will have a great deal to do with one another.

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The legacy grid that has powered so many facets of our lives over the last hundred-plus years has many extraordinary properties. One is the promise to deliver to each of us as much electricity as we want, at the exact instant we want it, for as long as we want it, without us having to ask for it—and the fulfillment of that promise for the vast majority of the hours each year. Electric utilities have been able to deliver on the promise by building and operating collections of generating stations that are managed with precise top-down control.

By contrast, the grid of the future will be powered in substantial measure by generating technologies that are not subject to top-down control. Most conspicuously, photovoltaic generation produces only as much electricity as the sun’s position and atmospheric conditions allow; and wind power produces only as much electricity as local air currents allow. Solar and wind together account for almost 60 percent of the world’s 3.3 terawatts of non-fossil-based electricity generating capacity, which translates to approximately 25 percent of total global generating capacity of 7.9 terawatts. At that ratio, the world’s generating capacity that is “dispatchable”........

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