Storage that discharges for ten hours or more — iron-air, flow batteries, thermal and mechanical systems — as opposed to the four-hour lithium standard.
Grids with heavy wind and solar have multi-day gaps that short-duration batteries cannot cover. Long-duration storage is what lets renewables supply firm power instead of needing gas backup.
Energy is stored chemically, thermally or mechanically in cheap, abundant materials, trading round-trip efficiency for very low cost per stored kilowatt-hour.
Multiple pilot and early commercial projects are connected to grids. Cost curves and cycle life over decades remain to be demonstrated.
Grid interconnection and capacity market participation.
Renewables and battery storage are projected to add about 82.7 GW of new US capacity over the next 12 months, according to new EIA data.
Source: Electrek · Read the original