Advanced Energy Storage Systems Market: Competitive Landscape and Market Share Analysis

Advanced Energy Storage Systems Market: Competitive Landscape and Market Share Analysis

Advanced Energy Storage: The Future of Power Generation and Distribution

As the world progresses towards more sustainable and eco-friendly sources of energy, energy storage has become an important area of focus. Advanced energy storage technologies that can store energy from renewable sources like solar and wind for later use are seen as integral to fully transitioning to a low-carbon economy. In this article, we will explore some of the most promising advanced energy storage technologies and how they are poised to shape the future of power generation and distribution.

Lithium-ion Batteries: The Mainstay of Energy Storage

Lithium-ion batteries have emerged as the dominant energy storage technology in the past decade. Their high energy density and long lifespan have made them ideal for powering devices ranging from phones to electric vehicles. Lithium-ion batteries currently account for over 95% of the global energy storage market. Continuous R&D has led to steady improvements in battery performance, driving down costs and increasing affordability. However, lithium supplies are finite and lithium batteries face challenges in terms of safety issues and degrading performance at high and low temperatures.

New battery chemistries are being explored to address these issues and push the limitations of lithium-ion even further. Next-generation lithium batteries utilizing lithium-sulfur or lithium-air technology promise higher energy densities than current lithium-ion batteries. The automobile industry is at the forefront of battery innovation, with companies investing billions to develop advanced lithium-ion and future battery technologies suitable for electric vehicles. Overall, lithium-ion batteries will continue dominating energy storage for portable devices and electric vehicles in the near future while new chemistries emerge for stationary storage applications.

Flow Batteries: Promising for Large-scale Storage

Flow batteries operate differently than conventional solid-state batteries. They use two chemical components dissolved in liquids contained in external tanks that are pumped through a power conversion unit where electrochemical reactions occur. This modular design allows flow batteries to independently scale power and energy capacity by increasing the size of electrolyte storage tanks. Their long lifespan, flexibility in scaling energy capacity, and suitability for stationary applications have made flow batteries an attractive technology for utility-scale energy storage.

Leading flow battery chemistries include vanadium redox flow and zinc-bromine systems. Vanadium redox batteries have demonstrated the highest efficiency and lifespan of over 20 years in pilot projects. Several large flow battery farms utilizing megawatt-scale systems have been deployed across the US and Asia to provide energy storage for solar and wind farms. Flow batteries have an advantage over lithium-ion in terms of fire safety as electrolytes are not stored within battery cells. Overall costs still need to come down further for widespread commercial adoption. However, with their flexible design suited for multi-megawatt applications, flow batteries are poised to make substantial contributions to the grid-scale energy storage market in the future.

Compressed Air Energy Storage: Tapping into Large Underground Spaces

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) systems work by pumping compressed air into underground spaces like caverns, aquifers or abandoned mines when electricity is available from intermittent renewable sources. The stored compressed air can then be released to power turbines and generate electricity during times of peak demand or when solar/wind power is unavailable. CAES provides very high discharge power and long storage durations from hours to weeks compared to batteries.

Currently, there are only two operating CAES plants—one each in Alabama and Germany. Both make use of natural geologic caverns to store compressed air. However, the technology has potential for much wider adoption. Recent projects are exploring using man-made caverns, containers or pipeline infrastructures to provide flexible underground storage space for compressed air. Researchers are also developing advanced adiabatic CAES systems with higher efficiencies than conventional designs by incorporating thermal energy storage. Overall, CAES could emerge as a widely deployable and cost-effective energy storage solution for balancing the grid at the multi-gigawatt scale if suitable geological conditions or innovative subsurface storage concepts are identified across regions.

Hydrogen Storage: Key to Season-scale Clean Energy

Hydrogen produced from renewable electricity via electrolysis holds great promise as an efficient long-term energy carrier that can store and transport energy across sectors on a seasonal scale. Unlike batteries which directly store electricity, hydrogen allows storing energy chemically and feeding it back to power fuel cells, generate heat or as a transportation fuel via hydrogen-powered vehicles. The challenges lie in bring down electrolyzer and fuel cell costs while developing infrastructure for large-scale hydrogen production, transportation, and refueling.

Pilot projects are demonstrating the potential of using hydrogen for decarbonizing heating networks in cities and seasonal energy storage at utility-scales. For example, a project in Korea stores solar-generated hydrogen underground at a rate of 200MWh per year. The hydrogen is then re-converted to power during monsoon season when solar output is low. As electrolyzer costs decline, more such seasonal-scale hydrogen energy banks could balance energy systems dependent on variable renewable resources like solar and wind on timescales beyond hours or days. Overall, deploying hydrogen energy infrastructure holds the promise of enabling a carbon-neutral, renewable-powered economy.

Conclusion

As the share of renewable energy on the grid increases, advanced energy storage system technologies will play a critical role in modernizing energy systems. From lithium-ion and next-gen batteries optimal for portable and mobile storage to large-scale stationary systems like flow batteries, CAES and hydrogen energy storage suited for grid-balancing – diverse technologies are being advanced and deployed globally according to their strengths in terms of technology performance, economics and scale. Establishing an optimized mix of energy storage solutions tailored to different timescales from seconds to seasons will be integral to enabling renewable energy to meet all our power needs in a sustainable manner. With continued RD&D and commercial deployment, advanced energy storage is set to transform the energy landscape.