Storage key to clean energy mix, Energy Storage Association says
In a recent blog post, Energy Storage Association (ESA) Vice President of Policy Jason Burwen argued that storage resources can help create a cleaner overall energy mix.
“Increasing storage deployment will enable new and broader opportunities for a cleaner supply mix, as well as enable the better use of existing generation,” Burwen writes. “In addition, storage increases the capacity of the grid to integrate more clean and distributed energy resources.”
Burwen called for market and market and regulatory reforms such as market structures and regulatory constructs that serve to internalize the costs of emissions. This, he wrote, incentivizes resources operators to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Other potential approaches include initiatives that aim to reduce emissions associated with peak electricity deliveries, building codes, and standards that enhance flexibility of demand and other proposed methods. These ideas, Burwen noted, often would require coordination and cooperation of an entire region.
Burwen also discussed studies that posit that energy storage resources increase emissions by increasing electricity use due to the energy lost during the process of re-delivering stored energy as well as studies that say storage charge more from emissions-intensive plants, such as coal plants.
Burwen argued a price signal for storage to charge with GHG emissions-free generation or to decrease charging at hours with high-GHG generation would minimize or eliminate these issues. He also noted that a slight increase in wind and solar installations could offset emissions from these impacts.
“Bottom line: addressing GHGs from storage means reducing GHGs from the overall supply mix—and storage helps that supply mix evolve more easily and reliably,” Burwen said.
