Long-Duration Energy Storage Can Help Clean Up Grid, If It's Super Cheap

"To compete with clean firm generation, long-duration storage needs to come down massively in price."

"I recently spent a week … OK, a month writing posts about batteries, which store energy for electronic devices, electric vehicles and, at least for short periods of time (four to six hours), the power grid.

Lithium-ion batteries are extremely good at those tasks — and they’re getting better, and cheaper, all the time.

But here’s the thing: A net-zero-carbon grid is going to need storage that lasts a lot longer than six hours. It’s going to need durations of up to 100, 300, 500 hours or more, and it’s going to need them to be cheap. Lithium-ion batteries just aren’t going to work for that.

What will work? Good question! No one really knows yet."

David Roberts reports for Canary Media June 19, 2021.

Source: Canary Media, 06/14/2021