Background and challenges

To "do" is to juggle with energy: each of our activities relies on a transfer of energy from one form to another. However, energy escapes us in the course of these exchanges: its inexorable degradation, associated with the creation of entropy, ultimately results in its dispersion in the surrounding environment. Skilfully handling energy to limit its degradation and maintain it in a usable form during each subsequent transfer is the challenge of energy management, which must address the issues of converting, transporting and storing energy in its various forms. Today, energy storage is a major obstacle to the development of intermittent renewable energies, which could make a significant contribution to the energy mix (see