Solar energy is a promising new energy source, but it can only be used during the day and in clear weather. It is transient, sometimes unavailable when needed and other times in excess. Therefore, people want to store it like coal, oil, and natural gas, or accumulate electrical energy like batteries, for easy use. So, what is used for long term energy storage?
What is used for long term energy storage? In order to support the use of sustainable energy, ESS captures and stores energy primarily provided by distributed variable renewable energy sources. This not only benefits the environment but is also beneficial for the populations of developed and developing countries. In these countries, electrification is used to drive commercial development and sustain life. Solar energy storage system not only store energy during low demand periods for use during peak loads, but also make future grid operation possible, eliminating the need to invest trillions of dollars in expanding transmission lines or building new air-polluting fossil fuel power plants.
By using renewable energy, power can be provided for the future. In 2017 and 2018, renewable energy contributed 18.1% and 26% respectively to world energy consumption and electricity generation. Within this energy consumption, 7.5% comes from traditional biomass, 4.2% from heat (non-biomass), 1% from biofuels for transport, 3.6% from hydropower, and 2% from wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and ocean energy.
The future demand for sustainable energy is driving the integration of more variable renewable energy into the grid, which in turn accelerates the adoption of energy storage technologies and maximizes grid resilience. It is predicted that the energy storage market will grow rapidly in the next few decades, driven by the expected popularity of electric vehicles and other electrification technologies. Investments in new energy storage are expected to increase by $620 billion in the next 20 years. By 2030, it is projected that 65% of the newly added storage capacity will be used to integrate various renewable energy sources into the grid and provide various grid services, 30% for residential solar energy storage and commercial solar energy storage, and industrial facilities, and 5% for supporting electric vehicle infrastructure.
Although there are still many practical obstacles to distributed energy networks, over the past decade, the development of localized solar power plants, small-scale wind farms, and battery storage facilities have greatly improved the cost-effectiveness of small-scale renewable energy technologies. What is used for long term energy storage? Energy storage systems allow consumers to produce excess clean electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy and feed it back into the grid according to their own needs. Homeowners and businesses can take advantage of various energy storage options installed on their premises. By 2025, distributed renewable energy is expected to be cheaper than grid-supplied electricity.