Energy storage is the Holy Grail of renewable energy – a cost effective and scalable energy storage system has the potential to make renewable energy far less costly and far more baseload compatible.
A recent announcement by a US company EOS Energy made (Startup Promises a Revolutionary Grid Battery) me sit up and take note. They claim that their zinc air energy storage solution can store energy at half the cost required to run natural gas based power systems – systems that are currently used for satisfying peak load.
At EAI, we once did a cost estimate for use of batteries in solar power plants, and found that if batteries were used to store enough energy for a 10 hour period, the capital costs for the plant shot up by over 200% – this is on top of the fact that solar power plants are, without batteries, one of the costliest.
Which is why I am excited whenever I hear of a battery breakthrough. But at the same time, some dose of reality is in order. Most times, these battery related announcements have flattered to deceive, so I will reserve my judgement on this until we get to know more, but in the meantime, here’s me wishing them all the best in their efforts.
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