Italy needs 71 GWh of new utility-scale electricity storage capacity by 2030 to meet EU targets to cut emissions by at least 55% by 2030, according to Terna which manages Italy’s transmission grid. ***STOP PRESS*** This Tuesday at 11:00 CET, Energy Post is exclusive media partner to a dedicated webinar (organised by ATA Insights/RENMAD) on Capacity Market Auctions REGISTER FREE HERE. In this article, Sara Stefanini summarises the Terna study, … [Read more...]
Long-duration storage: mechanical, electrochemical, thermal. We’ll need all three
“Long-duration” means the amount of time a power system can discharge electricity (this is different from long-term storage, i.e. the amount of time a system can store energy before discharging it). As Maria Chavez at UCS explains, it’s vital to the success of intermittent wind and solar roll-out which needs to store its excess generation for when it’s needed. And as electrification grows it will provide greater grid flexibility and resilience … [Read more...]
Community Batteries: when they’re the best option for overcoming grid constraints. And when they’re not
Community batteries are a shared asset in neighbourhoods with rooftop solar, avoiding the need for every household to have its own battery. Even people unable to have rooftop solar can use it. It’s taking off in Australia, supported at both the state and federal level. But Bjorn Sturmberg, Alice Wendy Russell, Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Louise Bardwell and Marnie Shaw at the Australian National University summarise their research which warns that it … [Read more...]
Gravity Batteries: any nation can do it at scale using rocks
The beauty of gravity batteries is that they simply involve lifting (charging) and lowering (discharging) a heavy weight, explains Simon Read writing for the World Economic Forum. For pumped hydro, access to water and a geological height difference is needed. But if you’re using rocks or bricks, anyone can do it anywhere, and at any scale. The rest is just a construction job. No rare materials or minerals will ever be needed, nor chemicals that … [Read more...]
Pumped Thermal Electricity Storage: grid-scale, cheap materials, known tech, compact, install anywhere
We need to store the huge quantities of excess electricity generated by variable renewables. But what’s the best way? Currently, over 99% of large-scale electricity storage uses pumped hydro dams. But geography severely limits where you can build one. And the growth of grid-scale batteries is limited by raw material costs and short lifecycles. Antoine Koen and Pau Farres Antunez at Cambridge University review an important alternative, Pumped … [Read more...]