How far off are we from viable long-duration energy storage?
Experts, technology providers and energy system stakeholders discuss how the need for long-duration energy storage can be met, in this panel discussion from the Energy Storage Summit USA hosted earlier this year by our publisher Solar Media.
Today, there are many applications that batteries and other energy storage technologies can provide that may require as little as a few minutes of high-power discharge to balance the grid and between one and four hours to help mitigate the peaks in electricity demand that put reliable energy supply under the most strain. As we go to higher shares of renewable energy on the world’s electricity grids, the need to store energy for longer periods of time will also grow.
This is an increasingly recognised fact and several different technology options exist to serve upwards of six hours of energy storage charge and discharge. But there aren’t many policy signals or market design regimes that enable those technologies to unleash their value as of yet, lithium-ion generally remains far more bankable than most long-duration storage technologies and while long-duration technologies such as flow batteries could offer lower cost of ownership over their lifetime, the upfront CapEx of many of those options remains quite high.
Steven Prince, advisor at energy and energy infrastructure financing group Alexa Capital moderates the discussion and asks questions of panellists from the California Energy Commission, community energy provider Silicon Valley Clean Energy, flow battery company E22, the California Energy Storage Alliance and the Long-Duration Energy Storage Association of California.
Moderator: Steven Prince, senior advisor and advisory board member at Alexa Capital
Panellists: Jin Noh, policy director at California Energy Storage Alliance
Monica Padilla, director of power resources at Silicon Valley Clean Energy
Julia Prochnik, executive director of the Long-Duration Energy Storage Association of California
