3 reasons why renewables will work better with energy storage
November 24, 2015
Recent construction on a project in Minister, Ohio, will be one of the largest grid-scale deployments of solar renewables and energy storage of its kind in the United States. According to Utility Dive, the facility will include 7 MW of storage adjacent to 4.2 MW of solar capacity. Initially, the project was going to be limited to solar deployment. However, a last-minute update to the state's Solar Renewable Energy Credit program gave the developers an opportunity to integrate storage.
By adopting energy storage along with solar generation, the city of Minister will gain the ability to alleviate transmission and distribution expenses, stabilize power flow and help the city shave peak demand. Considering the subsequent benefits, it's no surprise the developer sought out storage as a complementary technology to solar as soon as the opportunity presented itself. In fact, any building owner or designer considering an adoption of renewable technology should consider how critical energy storage is for helping wind and solar reach their full potential.
"Energy storage is critical to wind and solar reaching their full potential."
1. Intermittent generation is incompatible with the current grid
The rising demand for renewable energy supplemented by energy storage reflects a growing awareness among building owners, architects, designers and utilities regarding just how important energy storage is for getting the most from renewable installations. The data suggests that this trend won't lose its momentum anytime soon. According to Navigant Research, global installed energy storage systems designed for the purpose of being paired with renewables will grow from 196.2 MW globally in 2015 to 12.7 GW in 2025.
One of the major factors propelling this trend is the reality that variable energy sources like renewables are non-dispatchable due to their fluctuating nature. Traditional sources of fuel such as coal and oil are forms of stored energy. In comparison, renewable energy such as wind and solar are real energy that must be stored in order to have power available when its needed. Today's electrical grids were originally constructed to sustain a predictable power flow distributed from a central location, said Transmission and Distribution World. In addition to putting grid operators at risk of not generating sufficient power to meet demand, relying too heavily on variable energy sources like renewables can put extra stress on the grid and destabilize the local energy market. These risks emphasize a need for a means of storing and distributing this energy reliably, such as energy storage.
2. Facilities relying on renewable energy need a flexible backup plan
The same limitations plague renewable installations behind the meter. This leaves facilities who invest heavily in wind or solar at a loss when their sources of renewable generation are rendered useless by weather conditions. Echoing those grid operators who have identified opportunities to use energy storage to properly distribute power generated by renewables, organizations and companies that have installed energy storage at their facilities are able to harness the full advantages of their renewable resources.
For example, the Alamo Heights Independent School District (AHISD) in San Antonio adopted energy storage on its high school campus to fill the gap when solar power can't match consumption. The district invested in CALMAC's IceBank thermal storage tanks to perform this task, according to Reuters. The tanks allow the high school campus to store energy generated at night in the form of ice. By using this cheaply generated stored power to cool the campus during the day, the district has been able to reduce energy costs considerably. BuildingGreen pointed out that facilities generating renewable energy from wind and other forms of renewables can deploy energy storage solutions in the same manner.
3. The international community is setting new precedents for storage adoption
A report commissioned by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and performed by AECOM studied major energy markets worldwide and found that energy storage is critical for the future of renewable technology.
"Energy storage is perhaps the most significant enabling technology, providing the ability to both smooth and shift renewable generation to match demand profiles," the report read. The report also predicted that a rapid adoption of energy storage will naturally occur as the technology gains more recognition for its essential role in renewable generation.
Some government bodies have already recognized the importance of storage for cost-effective renewable generation to the point of drafting legislation requiring that the technologies are deployed concurrently. For instance, Bob Chiarelli, energy minister of Ontario, Canada, suggested at the Canadian Wind Energy Association's annual conference that the government may require integration of storage as a requirement when performing its upcoming procurement of 535 MW of renewable capacity, according to Wind Power Monthly.
These global patterns of energy storage adoption reflect just how effectively the technology addresses the weaknesses of renewable generation. Furthermore, the long term ROI of certain energy storage technologies such as ice storage makes it worthwhile for owners to identify storage solutions that meet their buildings' unique energy load profiles.
