Energy storage helps to usher fossil fuels out of the spotlight

October 21, 2014

A shift from fossil fuels is occurring in countries around the world. For example, utility companies in Germany have seen huge losses as German citizens become more energy efficient and use less electricity. CEO of German utility RWE Peter Terium has even conceded that the electricity business has moved into an era of decline, according to Clean Technica. In the United States, wind power capacity is projected to increase by 16.2% in 2015. New England power companies are under pressure to adapt to the new power age.

Overcoming coal
Research from Citigroup reveals that energy storage is key for the successful implementation of renewable energy to address resiliency issues that exist on the energy grid when fossil fuels are replaced with renewable generation on a large scale. The same report estimates the growth rate of renewable energy in major countries will improve by up to 50 percent, says Renew Economy. Greater adoption of storage will allow renewable energy to become a more apt competitor with coal, gas and oil as the go-to solution for satisfying electricity demands. Several First World nations are pushing to reduce coal consumption, further emphasizing the need for improving renewables through energy storage technologies such as flywheels, thermal energy storage and batteries.

Easing off oil and gasoline
Greater implementation of energy storage technology may go a long way toward reducing the worldwide dependence on petroleum. Many nations continue to burn oil to generate power and facilitate peak loads across their respective borders. Since oil is primarily used to generate peak capacity it will be the most vulnerable to widely deployed energy storage due to its high costs. Renew Economy notes that this shift toward energy storage could reduce worldwide oil consumption by 4.5 percent.

Evening out with natural gas
Energy storage's long-term relationship with natural gas is less potentially disruptive, but greater distribution of energy storage may still deteriorate the overall demand for natural gas. Specifically, the natural gas market may shrink as a result of renewable energy resources reducing the demand for coal and gas. Despite energy storage's impact on natural gas sales, Renew Economy asserts that the abundant fossil fuel still has value as a cheap method of backup power used to stabilize the power grid.