The 3 Best Energy Storage Technologies in 2020
Long-duration energy storage will play a crucial role in achieving renewables goals. Here are your top 3 for 2020.
Big Tech firms like Google, Amazon, and Apple are constantly striving to achieve a “deeper shade of green energy” when it comes to powering their data centers and facilities. Just yesterday, Apple committed to being completely carbon neutral by 2030. Wind and solar now dominate new power plant additions in many ISO’s generation interconnection queue. These renewables only produce during certain times and therefore they require long-duration, low-carbon energy resources to fill the gap. True low-cost, long-duration energy storage is the missing piece in making intermittent wind and solar function like baseload thermal generation twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
The effort to achieve long duration energy storage is being pursued by three basic technologies: batteries, pumped hydro, and compressed air. The most popular battery technologies are expensive and degrade significantly over time, while pumped hydro storage facilities are prone to leakage in liners. Both battery and pumped hydro storage have significant environmental and visual footprints as they are scaled to achieve long-term duration. Compressed air energy storage (CAES) alone is not hydrocarbon-free; needing natural gas to heat the air coming out of compression. So which one is king in 2020?
1. Green-Compressed Air Energy Storage
Our top energy storage technology of 2020 uses electricity to pump compressed air into a suitable underground storage formation, and then releases the pressurized air to re-generate electricity when needed. Compressed air storage has been successfully deployed in Huntorf Germany and in McIntosh Alabama and has been operating for over 20 years, but neither are hydrocarbon free as they require natural gas to heat the air coming out of compression.
To solve this problem, RESC has developed Greenstore, renewable energy storage that will change the way we achieve long-term green energy storage. Greenstore has the technical innovation of using thermal energy storage (TES) in combination with traditional CAES. By storing air in an impermeable salt cavern while associated heat is stored in an array of concrete and metal tubes, we can achieve fully hydrocarbon free long-term energy storage. Companies like Hydrostor, who just last fall received $37 Million funding, have proven that advances in hydrocarbon-free energy storage have helped enable a more affordable, cleaner, and flexible electricity grid. Wind and Solar are now competing very effectively for capacity additions in the US, as proliferation of these resources creates its own push for long-duration storage in places with high concentrations of wind and solar farms. Greenstore aims to follow renewable generation and long-term storage trends while satisfying utility and big tech companies upped targets for clean energy.
2. Battery Storage
Coming in second is battery storage. Lithium-ion batteries supply 99% of new storage capacity today, however, they get extremely expensive when used for long-duration storage. People love batteries, especially if they are pretty and streamline. They are today’s darling, even the utopia, for the next step in energy storage. However, technology advances have stalled while the market demand for products accelerates. The April 2019 fire and explosion at an Arizona Public Service battery plant, as well as multiple fires in South Korea startled many developers, customers, and regulators.
Greentech Media explains that “flow batteries have been considered promising for as long as anyone’s thought about long-duration storage, but that hasn’t given them many advantages in the marketplace. The archetypal flow battery company is either insolvent or still aspiring to its first substantial commercial deployment. But a lot of flow battery scientists swear by the technology, which circulates liquid electrolytes to charge or discharge electrons via redox reaction.”
2. Pumped Hydro Storage
Last on our list is pumped hydro storage, which holds truly massive amounts of storage and has low maintenance costs. Water is elevated using pumps from a low to high reservoir, then released through turbines when electricity is required. For reference, 90% of installed energy storage is pumped hydro. In 2020, pumped hydro storage is popular again.
The problem is that there is a lot of difficulty in developing pumped hydro storage facilities due to the permitting implications of large water-based infrastructure and scaling execution. Pumped storage also has a significant environmental and visual footprint as it is scaled to achieve long duration.
Follow us on our social channels for upcoming information regarding energy storage. For additional information:
Email: bolifant@gelbercorp.com
Sign up for our natural gas daily!
Phone: 713/655-7000
See our website at www.gelbercorp.com
