Climate change is a worldwide threat that requires swift remedial action – including rapid transition to a carbon-free electric system. Among the most potent tools in the transition to a zero-carbon grid are wind power and solar energy. These renewable energy resources produce no emissions, and they are powered by free, sustainable energy sources.
Unfortunately, the availability of wind and sun varies minute by minute. Periods of cloud cover or calm, windless conditions leave them temporarily unable to generate electricity. As more and more wind and solar resources are added to the grid, the electric system needs ways to store their energy for use whenever it’s needed.
The power sector plays a pivotal role in any scenario for substantially decarbonizing the U.S. economy by mid-century. The sector must substantially reduce its emissions even as demand for power rises as other sectors switch from fossil fuels to electricity to reduce their own carbon emissions.
Loss of inertial stability
Rapidly fluctuating net loads
Frequency stability impacts
In the 200-year history of the electric power system, few practical ways to store electricity have been successfully developed. The most common of these storage techniques is pumped hydroelectric storage. These massive facilities are built with large reservoirs on hills high above a powerhouse and a lower reservoir.
94% of the world's energy storage comes from pumped hydro
While conventional pumped storage is time-tested & effective, its ability to help meet our future energy storage and grid balancing needs is constrained by:
Currently, fossil-fueled generating facilities help balance the variability of wind and solar energy. DOE projects that more than 200 GW of these facilities will be retiring in the next decade. The question we face:
"Will we replace these facilities with similar ones and lock into 30-40 more years of emissions; or, will we will utilize this opportunity to shift to newer, cleaner technology?"
Batteries are great for 2-4-6 hour increments, but cannot economically supply the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) needed for long term grid stability
Shifting to new low carbon fuels and technologies can leave some people out of work with dim future prospects to utilize their skillsets
Storage Needed by 2024
Market Value by 2024
Storage Needed by 2050
Compared with the same period a year earlier, the United States saw a 93% increase in the amount of storage deployed in the third quarter of 2019. By 2024, that number is expected to top 5.4 gigawatts, according to a forecast by market research firm Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. The market value is forecast to increase from $720 million today to $5.1 billion in 2024. Driving such growth is an increased focus on adding renewable energy sources to the nation's grid.
Source: NREL, 1/2/21
Other forms of energy storage are now being explored, but they are proving costly and hard to site or limited in duration and capacity. In contrast, Quidnet’s modular geomechanical energy storage solution:
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