Storage options

Much focus has been put on alternative energy production methods and not enough on electricity storage. Electricity remains to be one of the few commodities that does not allow efficient storage in large quantities. As the universe of production methods shift to renewables – many of them with intermittent production capacity, storage becomes even more important for the functioning of the overall system. The option value of storage increases dramatically as the marginal cost of intermittent production sources trends lower, such as solar and wind. Energy will be produced by a solar plant when the sun shines regardless of the immediate need for it. If it cannot be used immediately, in most cases, it will go waste or even create havoc on the grid, if no storage is available.

Storage, thus, is at least as important a consideration as the production method. Technology does not seem to be advancing fast enough in this area. The focus cannot be just on centralized storage as distributed storage is an equally viable option. In this context, transportation systems that uses energy could use their storage mechanisms as distributed storage if the hardware is available. However, there is a danger here as this may arrest improvements in battery technologies as many will be tempted to put current batteries into action. Chemistry based batteries have always been inelegant and inefficient and these thus far have taken the focus away from capacitors and magnets as possible sources of storage. This is yet another example of investments seeking incremental improvements in conventional technologies while completely discarding possibilities that are an order of magnitude better.

Storage of energy is at least as important as producing it. It is falling behind both due to a lack of focus as well as biases that favor chemistry based technologies.