Stacked blocks: the way forward for energy storage? (Credit:
Energy Vault/Binh Nguyen/GTM)
Julian Spector
Rarely has such a crucial enterprise for the future of human
civilization led to such little commercial success.
Long-duration energy storage holds great potential for a world
in which wind and solar power dominate new power plant additions and gradually
overtake other sources of electricity. Wind and solar only produce at certain
times, so they need a complementary technology to help fill the gaps. And the
lithium-ion batteries that supply 99 percent of new storage capacity today get
very expensive if you try to stretch them out over many hours.
The problem is, no clear winner has emerged to play that
long-duration role. Here at Greentech Media, we’ve spent years covering the
contenders, which range from quixotic defiers of the laws of physics to
understated, scientifically minded strivers. The makeup of this roster has
fluctuated to the rhythm of bankruptcies and new investments.
Plenty of options technically “work.” The question is, do they
work with an acceptable price point and development cycle, and can the
businesses providing them stay afloat long enough to actually prove that? That
last step has been hard for companies to fulfill, insofar as in previous years
there were practically no places to actually sell this stuff.
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