Next Five Years: 4x the Energy Storage (Maybe)
February 22, 2012 By
Charis Michelsen
Energy storage is always an issue, whether it’s storing enough power
to run an electric car or storing enough
solar-generated electricity to supply power while the sun isn’t
shining. KEMA, a global energy consultancy company headquartered in the
Netherlands, recently released a report analyzing U.S. energy storage
over the next five years. In a nutshell, the market is expected to
quadruple.
The study was requested by the Copper Development Association, in
order to determine what impact changes in storage tech
will have on copper. Its findings are a bit broader than that,
however. The study made two different forecasts as to how much (or
little) storage tech would expand based on whether or not a
tax incentive would become available (last year’s
U.S.
Storage Act, S. 1845 proposed just such an incentive).
Expand, Expand, Expand
Current
energy storage capacity is mostly one of two options. The first is
thermal storage, or maintaining a thermal reservoir above or below
ambient temperature – storing energy as heat – which accounts for
roughly 1,000 megawatts of current capacity. The second is from
renewables generation; either as pumped hydro – water moved from lower
to higher elevation – which accounts for 115 megawatts, or compressed
air energy storage, which accounts for 500 megawatts.
KEMA’s report says that the biggest growth will be in neither of these
technologies, but in distributed storage. In other words, ancillary
services for the existing grid and also technology and applications that
help integrate
renewable energy into the grid.
Get Tax Credit, Invest More
Whether or not a tax incentive is available will likely have a massive
effect on storage tech expansion, KEMA found. Total growth of storage
capacity without a tax incentive is projected to be around 626 megawatts
(mainly in thermal storage and batteries). With tax incentives, that
growth is projected to be 2,300 megawatts – and that mainly in
technology for integrating renewable power with the grid.
KEMA estimates that the current political climate makes no incentive the
most likely outcome. I, however, can only hope that they’re mistaken on
this one prediction; clean power generation is tremendously important,
and power storage helps integrate energy from renewable sources into the
grid.
Comments or questions? Let us know below.
Source:
Green Tech Media | Image: Wikimedia Commons
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/15NEO)
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