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Energy storage is the key to the clean energy transition. It is true that the sun does not always shine and the winds don’t always blow, but when they do, they make far more electricity than the electrical grid needs at any particular time. If only there was a way to capture electrons now for use later at a cost that makes cents sense!
Twenty years ago, no such energy storage miracle existed, other than clunky lead acid batteries that required lots of maintenance and were expensive in grid scale quantities. Then came Tesla with its electric cars that many critics laughed at. They used hundreds and hundreds of lithium ion battery cells — similar in size to AA batteries — and suddenly the electric car revolution was here.
Then Elon Musk figured out those same battery cells could be used to store energy and the grid storage revolution began. The first large energy storage project was the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia. That installation shocked Australia and the world when it responded in microseconds to a large power outage, proving that grid stabilization was as important as grid storage. In its first year of operation, it saved the grid operator over $40 million. That was really the event that let the grid scale battery storage horse out of the barn.
