Future Stationary Energy Storage: Hydrogen, Batteries, Gravity, Gas, Other 2022-2042

This report is essential reading for those seeking materials, device and systems opportunities. Stationary energy storage is a term that refers to the heavy stuff not the battery in your smoke detector. Think rechargeable devices, battery and non-battery, mostly providing delayed electricity. Include, where necessary, massive pulses from a dribble of input. That refers to the large battery for your solar house, the roadside solar fast charger for your electric car, the trackside unit grabbing braking energy from your electric train and shooting it back. Uninterruptible power supplies are a large emerging need, now with multipurpose storage options. Uniquely, the IDTechEx report "Future Stationary Energy Storage: Hydrogen, Batteries, Gravity, Gas, Other 2022-2042" looks at all the proliferating needs and technologies on the essential 20-year timescale ahead.

 

The largest market is for large industrial grids and national grids such as short-term frequency control and energy shifting through the day to match supply to load. However, a massive amount of energy storage will next be needed as they approach the tipping point of 60% wind and/ or solar because dead time and weak-input time then become extremely impactful. Traditionally, that means add pumped hydro and more recently lithium-ion batteries up to the gigawatt/ $2.4 billion level but learn the many reasons why they will be inadequate. To the rescue, two giant 500MW/5GWh compressed-air storage projects (electricity-to-electricity) are proceeding. One supplier's liquified air projects in Spain are 2GWh - around $1 billion. Chasing them, 2GWh of flow batteries over five years is a recent order.

 

Why the variety? What next? What improvements ahead? Learn potentially-profitable gaps in the market such as much-lower-cost storage that is acceptable in smart cities and many months' storage for solar feeble in winter, wind dead. Here, a tsunami of investment is pushing hydrogen as a solution against heavyweights invested in gravity storage by lifting weights. How promising? What else? Only this report has an up-to-date appraisal of all of these and many others in the research pipeline with 2022-2042 roadmaps and forecasts prepared by PhD level IDTechEx analysts worldwide, many of them multi-lingual.

 

The Executive Summary and Conclusions takes 52 pages because it presents definitions, evolving needs and technologies, roadmaps, forecasts, companies and their timelines. The Introduction then takes 39 pages to explain the types of electricity supply, location and industry involved and their changing needs. Here are the options for the smaller systems needing small size, silence, high power density etc. and larger ones focussing on levelized cost of storage and other important factors identified. Understand the significance of intermittencies from seconds to seasonal and see examples from bus chargers to managing grid power through the day, influences such as arbitrage or feed-in-tariffs. New opportunity in smart cities and under water are here.

 

Chapter 3 at 74 pages concerns hydrogen and ammonia storage notably for longest duration energy storage and the hydrogen economy. See zero-emission sourcing and vested interests. Both the positives and the negatives are closely examined. Chapters 4 and 5 describes competitors for longest duration. Chapter 4 with 34 pages is gravitational energy storage lifting weights under sea or ground or to erects and disassemble towers. Come back grandfather clocks, all is forgiven! On rails or mountains? Chapter 5 is pumped hydro and particularly its new variants such as marine and using heavy water for hills if you have no mountains.

 

Next the report looks at technologies that can deal with intermittencies of hours to weeks but probably not months. The above options will, to some extent compete with them in this space so it is getting very busy but it is the emerging massive market demand so there is room for many solutions. Chapter 6, 14 pages, deals with compressed gas, mainly compressed air with its considerable initial success but ending with the more speculative new carbon dioxide option. Chapter 7, 17 pages deals with liquid air and its first serious orders while Chapter 8, 15 pages covers thermal energy storage such as hot rocks or more-speculatively sand or aluminium, mainly focussing on the two leaders.

 

Chapter 9 on redox flow batteries has 10 packed pages encompassing single to double tank, vanadium to zinc, iron and other options all with very different pros and cons. Chapter 10 is yet another competitor in this space of minutes to weeks of storage - other appropriate batteries approaching readiness for stationary energy storage of minutes to hours or maybe more. Here is the very promising sodium-ion batteries potentially beating lithium-ion on cost and environmental credentials, even availability. More speculatively there are aluminium, zinc and high temperature battery options examined.

 

The technologies end with Chapter 11. Here are 27 pages on technologies useful for the shortest duration and largest pulses in and out and even 1MW uninterruptible power supply doubling as peak shaving. Here you see Li-ion capacitors, pseudocapacitors, new supercapacitors and superconducting flywheels. The report then ends with many company profiles in Chapter 12.

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