23 May 2022
Energy storage
Several major policies and projects announced in the past year are expected to boost growth in global energy storage deployment.
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Rapidly scaling up energy storage systems will be critical to address the hour‐to‐hour variability of wind and solar PV, especially as their share of generation increases rapidly in the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario. Meeting rising flexibility needs while decarbonising electricity generation is a central challenge for the power sector, so all sources of flexibility, including power plants, grids, demand‐side response and storage need to be tapped.
Storage is indeed one of a suite of options to provide energy system flexibility, and it can generally be deployed quickly and modularly when and where flexibility is needed.
Its attractiveness should still be assessed relative to other measures, however, such as demand response, power plant retrofits, smart-grid measures that enhance electricity networks, and other options that raise overall flexibility.
Direct support for storage through mandates and policies remains the most common option to incentivise deployment, but greater emphasis should be placed on making regulations transparent and open, and on developing markets for capacity, flexibility and ancillary services so that storage can compete with other technologies and measures.
Storage is indeed one of a suite of options to provide energy system flexibility, and it can generally be deployed quickly and modularly when and where flexibility is needed.
Its attractiveness should still be assessed relative to other measures, however, such as demand response, power plant retrofits, smart-grid measures that enhance electricity networks, and other options that raise overall flexibility.
Direct support for storage through mandates and policies remains the most common option to incentivise deployment, but greater emphasis should be placed on making regulations transparent and open, and on developing markets for capacity, flexibility and ancillary services so that storage can compete with other technologies and measures.
Last updated Oct 6, 2022
Key findings
Annual grid-scale battery storage additions, 2016-2021
OpenPumped-storage hydropower is still the most widely deployed storage technology today, but grid-scale batteries are catching up
Grid-scale storage plays an important role in the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario, providing important system services that range from short-term balancing and operating reserves, ancillary services for grid stability and deferment of investment in new transmission and distribution lines, to long-term energy storage and restoring grid operations following a blackout.
Pumped-storage hydropower is the most widely used storage technology and it has significant additional potential in several regions. Batteries are the most scalable type of grid-scale storage and the market has seen strong growth in recent years. Other storage technologies include compressed air and gravity storage, but they play a comparatively small role in current power systems.
Pumped-storage hydropower is the most widely used storage technology and it has significant additional potential in several regions. Batteries are the most scalable type of grid-scale storage and the market has seen strong growth in recent years. Other storage technologies include compressed air and gravity storage, but they play a comparatively small role in current power systems.
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Our work
The mission of the Energy Storage TCP is to facilitate research, development, implementation and integration of energy storage technologies to optimise the energy efficiency of all kinds of energy systems and enable the increasing use of renewable energy. Storage technologies are a central component in energy-efficient and sustainable energy systems. Energy storage is a cross-cutting issue that relies on expert knowledge of many disciplines. The Energy Storage TCP fosters widespread experience, synergies and cross-disciplinary co-ordination of working plans and research goals.
