POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022 - 22

RENEWING THE PROMISE OF CLEAN ENERGY
ENERGY STORAGE
'Best Is Yet to Come' for Energy Storage
Technology
Advancements in batteries, along with an improved regulatory environment
and more investment, could make this decade the Roaring '20s for energy
storage.
M
any areas have been considered
a focus for the
electric power industry in
recent years. The grid continues to
face several challenges, as technology
advancements transform the way electricity
is produced and delivered.
Industry analysts have told POWER
that energy storage, be it from batteries,
thermal systems, mechanical storage,
hydrogen production, or pumped
hydropower, is critical to the advancement
of the power sector. The need
for storage is considered paramount
to the electrification of transportation
and other businesses, and to continued
growth in renewable energy.
" For energy storage, the best is
definitely yet to come, " said Ryan
Brown, co-founder and CEO of Salient
Energy, a Canada-based zinc-ion battery
manufacturer. Brown told POWER,
" We know that the industry is still
in its infancy in almost all
respects.
While adoption is already meaningful
and rapidly accelerating, a clean energy
world will require trillions of dollars'
worth of additional capacity to be installed.
" The
increasingly favorable regulatory
environment for energy storage,
combined with the evolution of business
models that are bringing more
capital into the space, means that the
2020s will be a breakout decade for
the energy storage sector, " Brown
said.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration
(EIA) in a summer 2020 report
said batteries are a key part of the
energy transition (see sidebar), especially
when it comes to providing grid
energy storage and electrifying transport.
Battery energy storage systems
1. Tesla is among the companies driving growth in energy storage. The company's Megapack
technology, shown here in an artist's rendering, is a utility-scale storage product.
The company in a recent earnings report said its 2020 energy storage deployments " for
the first time ... surpassed 3 GWh in a single year, which is an 83% increase compared to
the prior year [2019]. " Courtesy: Tesla
(BESS) have grown significantly in the
U.S. over the past decade (Figure 1).
The EIA said that in 2010, seven U.S.
battery storage systems accounted
for 59 MW of power capacity. By yearend
2018, there were 125 systems in
operation, with 869 MW of installed
power capacity. Those EIA figures do
not include recent capacity additions,
including the 1.2 GW of storage installed
in the U.S. in 2020 set to come
online in the next year, most of it in
California.
Kelly Speakes-Backman, former
CEO of the Energy Storage Association
who was recently named to a top
post at the U.S. Dept. of Energy, told
the audience at POWER's Distributed
Energy Conference last year that
additions of battery storage doubled
in 2020, and probably would have tripled
if not for construction slowdowns
caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lower battery costs have supported
growth. The EIA said the cost of utility-scale
battery storage in the U.S. fell
almost 70% between 2015 and 2018.
22 Supplement to POWER & RE+ 2022
The U.S. National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) projects that increased
battery production, and market
competition, will continue to drive
costs down. NREL recently said it sees
mid-range costs for lithium-ion batteries
falling another 45% by 2030.
" Lithium-ion batteries remain the
defining technology for new energy
storage projects, " said Brown, while
noting change is coming. " New technologies
that offer performance and
material cost improvements, while taking
advantage of lithium-ion's low-cost
manufacturing, show serious promise
for the space. "
Range of Solutions
The many types of energy storage
technologies include batteries, with a
range of electrochemical storage solutions,
including advanced chemistry
batteries, flow batteries, and capacitors.
There's also thermal storage, capturing
heat and cold to create energy
on demand or offset energy needs.
Mechanical storage includes technol
POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022

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