Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
I think one of the biggest questions left for the energy transition is what will happen with energy storage? Will a dominant cheap technology(ies) emerge like as has been the case with wind and solar or will storage remain relatively expensive and therefore niche technologies will be deployed based on the specific characteristics of the systems that use them.
What alot of the analysis is starting to point to is that we are probably over estimating the amount of storage we need and overemphasizing how important cheap storage is to the energy transition.
For example, reducing the costs of solar PV has a significant impact on the amount of storage you need. This NREL study estimates that if the cost of solar PV increases from 3 cents per kWh to 5 cents per kWh then you need 45% more storage capacity.
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/66595.pdf
Point being that driving down the costs of generating technologies also tends to drive down the need for storage. |
Thanks for the link Tinordi, I will read the report. Specifically, the issue I have had with these studies in the past is that the LCOE calculations for wind and solar do not include the investments in transmission or storage required to get the power to market. So the argument of the costs of renewables "dropping like a rock" is not really surprising (the fuel is free, afterall) nor all that relevant - because what use is power generation if you can't consume it? It does not cost the same to get a kWh of power from a windfarm in Pincher Creek to Calgary as it does from the Sheppard combined cycle gas plant, for example, so comparing LCOE and leaving it at that is a red herring in these analyses. Could you help me out and let me know what the authors include in the LCOE assumptions of this report? The point of the study seems to want to examine the magnitude of additional costs associated with storage, which would say to me that both transmission and storage are omitted from the LCOE figures.
Anyways - storage is an interesting term. There are several projects aiming to use excessive generation from renewables to produce chemical storage like hydrogen. Does it have to be Li batteries? Electricity is only roughly 30% of the consumption demand of a modern society. And the limits of what RES can contribute to that are seriously being questioned (both practically and economically). What about the balance that cannot be supplied by RES? What about transportation fuels (short of converting all production and transportation infrastructure to EVs)? What about industrial heat and power requirements?
These are serious hurdles that need a mix of the best technologies available to provide a solution.