The following excerpt is from an article published on 6/10/14 in Climate Confidential.

California’s
rapid emergence as a hotbed of innovation in energy storage — one of
the wonkiest sectors of the already wonky smart grid is noteworthy. The
market for energy storage has been supercharged by the California’s
world-leading policy to mandate energy storage and by investment from
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), federal policy, and private
capital.

In case you haven’t spent the past 10 years researching
and writing about the electricity grid, here’s a primer: To keep power
flowing reliably, grid operators must smooth out supply and demand
second-to-second (called frequency regulation), hourly (to address
intermittency), and on a daily, weekly, and annual basis (to meet peak
demand).

Historically, most grids haven’t stored much energy
because it’s been expensive. Instead grid managers relied on extra
fossil fuel plants to ramp up and down as necessary to provide these
services. But fossil fuel plants run most efficiently at full power, so
using these extra “peaker plants” to smooth the flow is even more
polluting than burning fossil fuels for baseload power.

Over the
last decade, pressure has mounted to shift energy consumption to less
polluting forms, such as wind and solar. But wind and solar are
intermittent energy sources: the sun doesn’t shine at night, and in many
places, wind slows during the day. So as their percentage in our energy
mix increases, the entire system needs added flexibility. That can be
addressed via demand response (a capability often built into appliances
to balance supply and demand by turning power off and on in tiny
bursts); new operating procedures, business models – and storage.

California
is on the leading edge of this new market thanks in part to its target
of 33 percent renewable energy by 2020. The move put into action a 2010
law passed by the California legislature, AB 2514, that required the PUC
to set storage targets.

Click here to read the rest of this story on Climate Confidential: https://www.beaconreader.com/climate-confidential/batteries-included

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