“As we increase renewable energy integration, we will need more...

“As we increase renewable energy integration, we will need more than four hours of storage capacity,” says Julia Souder, chief executive of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, in an interview.
“We need at least eight hours”—even weeks at a time if natural disasters hit, adding that long-duration storage provides a return on investment.



https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensil...-tripling-renewables-by-2030/?sh=68f502734fac

Long-Duration Energy Storage Is Core To Tripling Renewables By 2030
Ken Silverstein
Senior Contributor

Mar 25, 2024,08:45am EDT


DAGGETT, CA - OCTOBER 18: Rafael Carvajal Jr., 18, left, and Rafael Carvajal, 40, Wärtsilä ... [+]
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Nevada-based NV Energy is deploying solar-plus-storage to generate half its electricity with renewables by 2030 and all of it by 2050. It will buy the output from three projects, generating 1,200 megawatts of solar energy and using 590 MW in energy storage to get there. The utility will store excess solar power during the day and deliver that electricity to customers at night.

That strategy is trending—expected to get even more traction now that global climate leaders aim to triple the use of renewables by 2030. Indeed, clean power is essential to decarbonize the grid and provide universal electrification. However, it is a spotty resource that requires either a backup energy source such as natural gas or a storage device that can release electrons for long durations, which remains costly.

“As we increase renewable energy integration, we will need more than four hours of storage capacity,” says Julia Souder, chief executive of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, in an interview. “We need at least eight hours”—even weeks at a time if natural disasters hit, adding that long-duration storage provides a return on investment.

Tripling the renewable energy capacity worldwide means installing more than 1 million MW annually by 2030—double the record set in 2023. That will require $1.5 trillion yearly, almost three times more than we spent in 2023.

That’s a formidable objective. But nearly every country globally has vowed to ratchet up its renewable energy generation, including India and China. Storage developers want to position themselves to win market share. As such, they added 6,800 MW of short-term battery storage last year, up 59% from 2022, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. And 2024 promises to exceed those numbers, with 34,000 MW to come online.

In this country, California and Texas have the most utility-scale storage, followed by Nevada, Arizona, and New York. Terra-Gen built the largest venture in Kern County, Calif., with 864 MW of solar and 3,287 MW-hours of energy storage consisting of lithium-ion batteries, considered shorter-term.