Ouagadougou low-carbon energy storage system

Can energy storage technologies help a cost-effective electricity system decarbonization?

Other work has indicated that energy storage technologies with longer storage durations, lower energy storage capacity costs and the ability to decouple power and energy capacity scaling could enable cost-effective electricity system decarbonization with all energy supplied by VRE 8, 9, 10.

Why is energy storage important in a decarbonized energy system?

In deeply decarbonized energy systems utilizing high penetrations of variable renewable energy (VRE), energy storage is needed to keep the lights on and the electricity flowing when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing — when generation from these VRE resources is low or demand is high.

Should energy storage be co-optimized?

Storage should be co-optimized with clean generation, transmission systems, and strategies to reward consumers for making their electricity use more flexible. Goals that aim for zero emissions are more complex and expensive than net-zero goals that use negative emissions technologies to achieve a reduction of 100%.

What is long-duration energy storage (LDEs)?

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is a potential solution to intermittency in renewable energy generation.

Are lithium ion batteries a cost-effective strategy for decarbonizing power systems?

Sepulveda et al. 1 demonstrated that relying only on lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries (or other storage options with similar characteristics) to augment VRE capacity is not a cost-effective strategy for decarbonizing power systems.

Can LDEs reduce carbon-free electricity costs?

Energy capacity cost must fall below US$20 kWh –1 (with sufficient efficiency and power capacity cost performance) for LDES technologies to reduce total carbon-free electricity system costs by ≥10%.