The green and renewable energy market is bringing electricity to millions of people, with little adverse environmental impact, but a key innovation must be achieved before we can rely on renewable energy for broad reliability: storage.
While hydropower and some other renewable sources can generate electricity around the clock, solar and wind energy are irregular and not necessarily consistent in the 24/7 forecast.
Storms and darkness have destroyed solar power plants, and dozens of meteorological phenomena have also affected wind power plants.
Since these power supplies have natural peaks, they cannot be aligned with the consumer's power needs without efficient storage.
Solar and wind energy can meet the demand during the day or in a short period of time, but when the energy is high and the demand is low, if it cannot be stored in some type of battery, the electricity generated must be used or wasted.
According to GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association, the energy storage market is expected to grow by 17 times from 2017 and 2023.
This forecast explains the impact of private and commercial deployment of storage capacity, including government policies such as California solar panel authorization.
In the same range, the dollar value of the energy storage market is expected to grow by 14 x.
The exact types of storage deployments in these predictions vary.
Recent innovations include advances in traditional battery technology and battery alternatives such as liquid air storage.
In New York, a project includes a megawatt lithium.
Lead-acid solution is replaced by ion battery storage system.
However, the liquid air storage unit uses excess energy to cool the air in the pressurized chamber until it becomes liquid.
Instead of storing electrical energy or chemical energy like a battery, this process stores potential energy.
When demand arises, the liquefied air can be heated and expanded quickly to make the turbine generate electricity.
Meanwhile, Tesla has added nearly three of its annual energy storage deployments worldwide since 2015.
Charge with low level leadercost lithium-
Ion batteries, Telsla and other innovators are rapidly increasing their global capacity.
These energy storage devices are widely used and can store energy from any source-fossil fuel or renewable energy-and anywhere-private residential or industrial operations.
With the continuous decline in battery costs and the emergence of battery alternatives, the prediction of storage capacity is indeed very likely.
Assuming that the power industry can indeed upgrade its current infrastructure, the new grid connection means that energy will be able to share more than ever before, and may even travel long distances during peak hours, or stored in
Use peak anywhere on the grid.
When storage costs and capacity are aligned with market incentives, we may see a renewable energy revolution that makes distributed generation the mainstream for all consumers.