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Alternatives to lithium-ion batteries are likely to emerge in the coming years, according to a new report from IDTechEx.
Variable renewable energy (VRE) generation sources, such as solar and wind, are increasingly expected to become the dominant source of electricity globally by mid-century. With the variability of intermittent electricity generation cycles provided by these sources, energy storage is necessary to ensure a stable and balanced supply.
Demand response programs, distributed home batteries, vehicle-to-grid storage, community-level batteries and many other technologies will play a role in balancing the grid dominated by variable renewables. Along with these technologies, demand is increasing for long-duration energy storage (LDES), which can typically store and send electricity for six hours or more.
An IDTechEx report models the growth of LDES and projects a global market of $223 billion by 2044. According to the report, this market growth will occur regionally at different rates. For example, if the state of California (US) meets its 2035 clean energy goals, it will have a 280% increase in renewable energy capacity compared to a baseline of 2023. Other countries and states in The US where rapid growth in renewable energy deployment is expected are Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, India and Texas, according to the report.
“Increased penetration of renewable energy will lead to longer periods when energy from these sources will not be available, so LDES technologies will be needed to distribute energy over these longer periods,” the report states.
According to IDTechEx, once a country or states electricity from VRE sources reaches approximately 45% of the energy mix, average storage duration of six hours or more will become the most cost-effective option. According to the report, this 45% threshold will be reached on average worldwide by the late 2030s, although the aforementioned warm markets are expected to reach the milestone sooner.
Aside from pumped hydrogen, which relies on local tap water sources, lithium-ion batteries dominate the global stationary energy storage market, according to the report. However, IDTechEx notes that lithium-ion batteries are unlikely to have sufficiently low capital costs for LDES applications.
To reduce the cost per kilowatt-hour, IDTechEx recommends technologies that allow energy and power to be decoupled. Redox flow batteries (RFB) could play this role.
“To increase the capacity of the RFB system, it is possible to increase the volume of the electrolyte and the size of the storage tanks, while to increase the power it is only necessary to modify the cell set,” the report states.
According to IDTechEx, liquid air energy storage (LAES) is another alternative that can offer economic benefits on a large scale.
“In the case of the LAES, the size of the liquid air storage tanks can be increased, while the turbomachinery only has to be scaled based on power,” the report explains. “This translates into a faster, non-linear reduction in investment costs (in dollars/kWh) for many of these LDES technologies based on storage duration.”
Other technologies evaluated in the report are iron-air (Fe-air), rechargeable zinc batteries (Zn-air, Zn-ion, rechargeable Zn-MnO2, Zn-Br), high temperature/molten salt batteries , RFBs, (CAES), Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES), Liquid CO2/Cryogenic Energy Storage (LCES), Alternative and Underground Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (APHS), Gravitational Energy Storage Systems (GESS), thermal and electrothermal energy storage (TES) and (ETES), and hydrogen. |
