Technologies Are Being Explored To Cut Costs for Bulk Energy Storage?

All companies worldwide aim to create cheaper energy storage solutions. Generating and storing excess energy from solar and wind during peak demands are crucial to stabilizing the grid and ensuring a consistent power supply. 

However, the high costs of energy storage systems such as batteries, battery materials, and inverters are massive hurdles for consumers and manufacturers. So, to fix this problem, multiple technologies and strategies are being discovered to cut costs and make bulk energy storage.

Here, we categorize the latest advancements in energy storage technologies into three sections: electrochemical, mechanical, and some other energy storage technologies. Let's explore them all! 

Electrochemical Energy Storage Technologies 

Lithium-ion Battery Advancements

Lithium-ion batteries are the primary energy storage technology, with established global manufacturing driven partly by their use in electric vehicles and residential applications. Few other battery materials, like nickel or cobalt, are highly expensive, which remains a barrier. 

Researchers are working on reducing the use of cobalt and graphite, which are mainly sourced from unstable supply chains. Further, the addition of lithium not only reduces foreign dependency but also leads to more powerful, lighter, and affordable batteries. 

Lithium-ion batteries typically last 2-4 hours, with cost competitiveness minimizing at longer ranges. Despite the technology's benefits, it used to suffer from thermal runaways, which caused fire concerns. But the latest software and technology innovations are fixing these safety issues. Few suppliers like Innotinum are playing an important role by offering the most secure and high-quality lithium-ion batteries. 

Flow Battery Energy Storage

Flow battery storage technology is in the development stage but offers a longer duration range than lithium-ion batteries. Its ability to widely discharge stored energy without damaging the storage system exceeds its life cycle. 

Flow batteries store energy in liquid electrolytes, unlike lithium-ion batteries, making them best for large-scale applications. This energy storage technology has higher upfront costs, but its longer lifecycle can lead to notably lower lifetime costs. Flow batteries are typically less dependent on rare materials like nickel and cobalt and are much safer. 

Lead-Acid Battery Energy Storage

Lead-acid batteries are widely commercialized energy storage technology like lithium-ion batteries. However, their inability to stay uncharged for a longer time or to be deeply discharged without any damage restricts their applications in utility-scale power systems. Furthermore, their short life cycle makes them less sufficient for large-scale applications. 

Solid-State Batteries

Solid-state batteries are the best innovation in energy storage technology. They replace the liquid electrolyte deployed in lithium-ion batteries with a solid material that is less prone to heat and fire, which is a major concern for other batteries. 

Solid-state batteries can store a large amount of energy in smaller spaces, making them ideal for larger-scale energy storage applications. Further, the manufacturing cost of these batteries is significantly lower due to their simple design and the lack of an expensive cooling system. 

Two reputable companies, Toyota and QuantumScape, are aiming to develop solid-state batteries because they offer higher energy density, a longer life span, and faster charging capabilities than traditional lithium-ion batteries.

Mechanical Energy Storage Technologies

Pumped Storage Hydropower

Pumped storage hydropower is one of the widely developed mechanical energy storage technologies commercialized globally. When water passes from turbines and moves from upper to lower reservoirs, electricity is generated. 

It has about 90% of the world's energy storage capacity. Such larger capacity and long durations make it a perfect choice for energy arbitrage, charging during cheaper power and fulfilling demands during high-demand times. However, one drawback of this technology is its high upfront costs and geographical requirements. 

Compressed Air Energy Storage

CAES is another mechanical energy storage technology that deploys electricity to compress and store ambient air for later use. When needed, this compressed air is drawn from the storage space, expanded, and passed through a turbine to produce electricity.

The high energy capacity, longer duration times, and slower response times make CAES best for offering energy arbitrage and peak capacity. Its energy prices are lower than those of other technologies, but its operation is limited because of geographical requirements. 

Other advanced variations, such as liquid air energy storage (LAES) and adiabatic compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) technologies, are still developing but are cost-effective options for bulk energy storage.

Flywheel Energy Storage

Flywheels are widely established and commercialized energy storage technologies that use low-friction bearings and rotors to transform rotational kinetic energy into electricity. Their faster charging, longevity, short discharge durations, and little maintenance make them practical for multiple applications, like Hurd frequency regulations. 

Gravity Energy Storage

GES is a still-growing technology that deploys established mechanical bulk storage principles. It deploys the potential energy of a mass at an offering's height, utilizing water as an elevated mass. 

This technology offers long-term energy storage, making it best for longer-duration and slower applications like load following peaking capacity and energy arbitrage. Further, advanced technologies deploy low-cost and cheaper mediums like sand, rock, or concrete to cut costs for bulk energy storage systems. 

Other Energy Storage Technologies 

Thermal Energy Storage

Thermal energy storage technology relies on storing energy as heat and withdrawing the heat at a later time, either to produce electricity or to fulfil heating demands. It is marked by a longer duration of multiple hours and is a good choice for high-capacity requirements. It often operates with concentrated solar power plants to convert generated energy during high solar hours to nighttime. 

Hydrogen Energy Storage System

Hydrogen energy storage systems for electricity rely on hydrogen generation, storage, and conversion into electricity. They're the best technology for long-duration storage and converting a surplus of renewable energy in the spring to a shortfall in summer or winter. However, the Hydrogen energy storage system is a promising technology for integrating massive renewable energy into the grid. Its further research and investment plans focus on reducing its cost to make it best for bulk storage solutions. 

Bottom Line

In short, cutting costs for bulk energy storage is essential to boost the transition to renewable energy. Multiple promising technologies, such as lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries, solid-state batteries, CAES, TES, GES, and hydrogen storage, are being discovered to minimize the costs of storing energy at a larger scale. Each technology has its own strengths and weaknesses. 

Multiple companies like Innotinum are playing their role in making such advancements, especially lithium-ion batteries, accessible to everyone. They offer cutting-edge, all-in-one technology that not only offers risk-free solutions but also cuts the cost of bulk energy storage to reduce grid dependency and energy waste.