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SITUATION
Cost-effective energy storage would enable widespread adoption of low-carbon solutions in the electricity and transport sectors. Energy storage would enable increased integration of renewable generation into the electricity grid, support better electricity management, and make electric vehicles a more competitive option.
Cost-effective energy storage would enable widespread adoption of low-carbon solutions in the electricity and transport sectors. Energy storage would enable increased integration of renewable generation into the electricity grid, support better electricity management, and make electric vehicles a more competitive option.
Current emissions from the electricity and transport sector total more than 35 billion tons of CO2e annually, or 70% of anthropogenic emissions, and under business-as-usual are projected to continue rising between 2009 and 2020. Stabilization targets for CO2e emissions to avoid dangerous climate change cannot be met without decreases in emissions in these sectors. Energy storage can facilitate the necessary rapid adoption of alternative energy and transport.
Batteries are the most common storage option. Lithium-ion batteries first developed for portable electronics have been experiencing market growth, with applications to high-power transport. Applications of lithium-ion batteries for utility scale energy storage have not yet been proven. There are a number of other battery technologies – including sodium sulfur, zinc-bromine, vanadium redox, and polysulfide-bromide redox flow batteries, among others. Sodium sulfur is one battery technology being considered for use at the utility scale in the U.S., having been successfully deployed in Japanese utilities. Other storage options for electric utilities include pumped hydroelectric storage – common today – and compressed air energy storage (CAES) that uses excess energy to force air into underground storage sites (such as salt domes and depleted gas fields) and then releases the pressurized air to drive a turbine to generate electricity. CAES is still in the demonstration phase.
The potential market for storage is driving private investment in research and development. Technologies with longer deployment times but still important to the acceleration of alternative transport and energy markets, including CAES, will require public support.
OBJECTIVE
Development of cost-effective energy storage needs to be accelerated as a critical dependency for scale up of renewable energy and electric transport solutions that reduce CO2e emissions in these sectors.
Development of cost-effective energy storage needs to be accelerated as a critical dependency for scale up of renewable energy and electric transport solutions that reduce CO2e emissions in these sectors. Meeting new energy demand between 2009 and 2020 with renewable generation, facilitated by energy storage, could reduce annual CO2e emissions by up to 3 billion tons.
Energy storage is already a major area of investment with a number of private companies in the space. The market will accelerate once four major barriers are addressed: regulation, utility acceptance, pricing, and technology.
Market-based Approaches
The four major barriers to accelerated market growth and widespread deployment of energy storage are as follows:
Regulation. The energy sector is highly regulated. Regulators need to approve use of energy storage technology before electric utilities can adopt it; and prior to setting regulations, there has to be agreement on how to classify the technology – under generation or transmission.
Utility Acceptance. Electric utilities have to be assured of cost recovery before undertaking large upfront investments. Under current utility regulation, consumer rates are tied to electricity consumption only. In order to charge consumers for measures that reduce consumption or lower the total cost of electricity, regulatory changes may be required.
Pricing. Consumers need incentives to adopt energy storage. Such an incentive could come in the form of price signals (such as time-of-use pricing), which encourages users to shift the time of their consumption. Price reform requires utility action and may require regulatory approval.
Technology. Increasing energy density and lowering costs of batteries is a major research aim being pursued by private companies but also an appropriate area for government research support given the need for basic R&D in electrochemistry.
UTILITY SCALE STORAGE IS NEEDED
Development of cost-effective energy storage needs to be accelerated for the adoption of renewable energy solutions. Meeting new energy demand between 2009 and 2020 with renewable generation could...
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ENERGY STORAGE IS A COMPLEX MARKET
Cost, power, and discharge potentials are the factor that differentiate products in the nascent grid-scael energy storage market...
Read more > Source: GTM Research, 2009
STORAGE IS KEY FOR RENEWABLES ADOPTION
A low-cost grid-scale energy storage technology would be a game-changer for renewables. Storage could be used for load shifting, wherein excess generation from solar power during the day could be...
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STORAGE SUPPORTS GRID FUNCTION 
Flywheels are a storage solution that provide value by storing excess grid electricity as energy in fast spinning wheels and then converting the energy back into electricity when grid demand...
Read more >INTELLIGENCE
REPORTS
Greentech Media, 2009
DOE EERE, 2009
NETL, 2008
US DOE, 2008
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