First we tamed the water flow. Building hydro power plants. After that we should have looked at the other natural energy containers. I’m talking melted rock or lava. Not that we should tap that energy. It just seem so natural that we should get inspired by that instead. We need more energy storages. So because volcanoes are a terrifying display of energy. Could not this inspire a new energy storage?
In comparison with pumped hydro. Could we develop man made molten rock or lava as a way of storing energy? Not tapping into a natural source but actually making our own molten rock.
Because the material is so very very cheap (rock) compared to Lithium Ion batteries.
I think this is definitely worth the research. Also using lava should mean no metal shortages.
Image taken from commons.wikimedia.org
I belive you need to use your brain for all kinds of problems to be able to come up with solutions that are more IT related. In this case energy storage.