With increasing climate change concerns and focus on adopting renewable energy sources globally, stationary energy storage is playing a vital role in enabling large scale integration of variable renewable energy sources like solar and wind into the electricity grid. Storage helps in addressing the balancing challenges between renewable energy generation and demand by absorbing excess energy when production is high and releasing it when generation is low.
Battery Energy Storage Technologies
Batteries remain one of the most mature and commonly used energy storage technologies globally. Different battery technologies are used for stationary energy storage applications depending on the requirements.
Lithium-ion batteries: Lithium-ion batteries have emerged as the dominant battery technology due to their high energy density and long lifetime. They are widely used for front-of-the-meter grid connected energy storage projects as well as behind-the-meter residential and commercial & industrial applications. Continuous improvements are being made to increase their lifetime and bring down costs. This article provides insights on stationary energy storage market and provide an overview on different technologies, applications and future outlook of this important sector.
Flow batteries: Flow batteries offer unique advantages of separating the energy capacity from power capacity allowing scalability. They also offer very long lifetimes of over 20 years. Vanadium redox flow and zinc bromine batteries are some examples of flow batteries being deployed for grid scale energy storage projects. However, their relatively higher costs currently limit widespread adoption.
Lead-acid batteries: Despite lower energy density and cycle life compared to lithium-ion, lead acid batteries still find applications for off-grid renewable energy integration due to their mature technology and lower upfront capital costs. Their second life use after extraction also enhances sustainability.
Stationary Energy Storage Applications
Depending on location and scale, stationary energy storage has different applications across generation, transmission & distribution and end-use sectors:
– Grid services: Storage provides important grid balancing services like frequency regulation, peak shaving etc. to transmission system operators by absorbing and releasing power when required.
– Renewable energy firming: By storing excess solar and wind energy when generation is high, storage helps maximize utilization of renewable energy sources by making supply firm and predictable for the grid.
– Microgrids: Storage enables continuous power supply from hybrid renewable energy systems for off-grid communities, islands and remote locations by compensating for variability in local renewable energy sources.
– Demand charge management: For commercial and industrial consumers, storage helps optimize electricity consumption from the grid to minimize peak demand charges by utilizing stored renewable energy or shifting loads.
Future Outlook of Stationary Energy Storage
The stationary storage sector is witnessing considerable growth driven by global decarbonization agendas as well as technology cost reductions. Key factors such as supportive government policies and regulations, development of innovative business models and rising mini-grid deployments across developing world will continue to accelerate stationary storage adoption worldwide. Asia Pacific and Europe currently dominate the global market. The United States market is also projected for significant growth. However with rapidly falling costs, global stationary storage deployments are expected to exponentially rise this decade across both utility-scale as well as behind-the-meter sectors.
As the share of renewable energy sources in the overall energy mix increases, stationary energy storage will play a transformative role in enabling the transition towards a cleaner, sustainable and reliable energy system. Continuous technology advancements and innovative business models are expected to make stationary storage a crucial part of future electricity grids and distributed energy ecosystems. Widespread stationary storage adoption will thus be instrumental for achieving long term climate change mitigation targets globally.
