By Warren Miller, contributing writer
The future of renewable energy lies as much in finding ways to store it as it does in collecting it. While solar and wind power technology have become prevalent in recent years, energy is only collected by such systems under optimal conditions (i.e., when it’s sunny or the wind is gusting), and a lot of that energy can be wasted without an improved capability for storing it. Although great strides have been made in the realm of renewable-energy batteries and fuel cells, these are still very costly ― and, therefore, barriers to a low-cost renewable future.
Researchers at Imperial College, London, have developed a new analytical tool that’s designed to predict the futures of relative energy storage methods and provide insight into where and when investments should be made to ensure the most effective development of these technologies. The researchers created a database that captures how established energy-saving technologies have become more cost-effective over time. They then used the patterns they observed to make predictions about when new energy-saving tools could become more affordable. They forecast that the cost of owning and operating an electric vehicle will catch up to the corresponding cost of their gas-powered counterparts by between 2022 and 2034.
Image source: Pixabay.
Ideally, this database could be used to steer future investment in energy storage technology, making it a less speculative endeavor. For example, the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset, South West England, will cost over 19 billion pounds to construct and is projected to produce around 3.2 gigawatts of power when it’s completed in 2025. By comparison, this new predictive tool would expect lithium-ion batteries to store between 21 and 41 gigawatts of energy (over 10 times the current electric storage capacity of the United Kingdom) by 2025 if a similar investment were made in their future development.
The tool can be particularly useful when analyzing some of the newest approaches to power generation, distribution and storage. One interesting scenario for renewable power would be the pervasive deployment of small solar panels, perhaps on a per-home basis. Would these distributed power systems be best used by providing power to the existing power grid for distribution, or would local power storage, perhaps via high-capacity home storage batteries, be more cost-effective? Should there be a mid-tier of energy storage facilities, perhaps replacing some of the soon-to-be-retired gas stations, that collect, store, and distribute energy within a neighborhood or business campus? This new tool could help sort through the dizzying number of possible options and identify the most efficient system.
This tool could have a dramatic impact on our energy future if it could be used by government and industry to help craft a renewable energy strategy with a predictable and cost-effective deployment of the key system components. This would fuel faster and more advanced developments in renewable energy and would bring us ever closer to the end of our worldwide reliance on fossil fuels. We might even be able to beat the estimate of 2022 to 2034, being that the tool hasn’t yet had a chance to factor in the positive effect it would have on accelerating the transition to renewable technologies.
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