Is Storage the Future of Energy, especially Renewable Energy?

          With the recent turmoil in oil industry and rising coal prices, the affinity towards the alternative and cleaner sources of energy is increasing. Wind and Solar power are the most abundant and cleaner form of renewable energy present at the moment. Both these sources of energy come with their own set of practical problems.

          Neither Solar nor Wind energy can be generated at our will. The energy generated from both these sources is intermittent. The power can only be generated when the wind is blowing and in case of solar energy, the power is generated only for few hours of the day, when the sun is high in the sky. This spasmodic supply of power is causing lot of problem to the grid operators.

          In Philippines, the grid operators are concerned that surplus power would be fed into the grid when all of the solar PV plants in the country would be running along with the conventional sources of energy in the region. Power strikes due to intermittent solar PV has already caused grid disruptions in the country. Similar is the experience of Germany, where the high usage of solar power and other renewable sources of energy has triggered instability to the Germany’s grid. As a result the commercial and industrial consumers are forced to purchase generators as their alternative back up to save their critical machinery from damage caused due to power disruptions.

          To sort out such kind of energy problems, the world is now focussing on the development of clean technologies that would enable us to store the power being generated and use it at the appropriate time. Experts believe that both batteries based and thermal based storage will play a crucial role for the success of renewable energy. There are several other innovative projects in progress across various parts of the world to make the energy storage more efficient and affordable.

• Tesla Powerwall is one such step in the similar direction. The utility version of the product in size of 100 kWh block is also available.
• In recent past a company has come with a technology of Liquid Air Energy Storage, in which liquid air is used to create energy reserve which can be used for large scale energy storage projects.
• Also thermal storage of electricity in the form of ice has already been a proven technology, where electricity is being used to create tonnes of ice and later it is being melted to use for cooling of buildings.

          I see a future where the nights will be powered by batteries or some other kind of energy storage system. This can make renewable energies more reliable and economical to the consumer in long run. The grids will also have a continuous supply of energy, which will prevent them from disruptions.

Energy storage has several other benefits like:-

• Energy stored in the thermal form can be used for cooling during day time, practically replacing air conditioner and thus saving money to the consumer.
• Energy storage system also qualifies the building to be certified by LEED, as it reduces emission of greenhouse gases. It also increases the value of the property.
• Energy storage will help humanity to switch completely to the renewable energy, which in turn reduces our reliance on fossil fuels and reduce carbon foot print.

          U.S. Energy Storage market is growing rapidly. It has witnessed 243 percent growth as reported by GTM Research and Energy Storage Association (ESA). By 2020, there would be 1.7 gigawatts of projects that would be dependent on some kind of Energy Storage technology. $ 2.5 Billion is the expected size of the Energy Storage market by 2020.

          Energy Storage is changing the way; we produce, dispense and use energy. Thus Energy Storage plays a big role in the successful implementation of renewable energies like Wind and Solar Power. A lot has been achieved in Energy Storage and lot more milestones need to be reached. The result would be more resilient and flexible grid infrastructure. Thus we would get freedom to explore more of renewable energy resources and reduce our carbon foot print.