Could future energy storage development put ‘the next thing’ on your shelves?

Posted by tED magazine on Friday, February 17, 2012

By Joe Salimando

At the Feb. 8-9 National Electricity Forum, a breakout session’s unwieldy title was: “Game Changers: How Deployment of Plug-In Electric Vehicles and Grid-Scale Energy Storage Technologies will Impact the 21^st Century Electricity Industry.”

No definitive answer came through what the world has now – in terms of energy storage and especially EVs – are…possibilities. Probabilities? Fuhgedaboutit.

Small storage possibilities

Tom Stepien, CEO of Primus Power, spoke about energy storage. He followed the moderator, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission – who said his state would need 3,000 mW to 4,000 mW of storage by 2020.

Stepien’s take: It’s a lot cheaper to make electrons now than to store ‘em. But this gap should narrow. AND: Maybe, what we need is small-scale storage, instead of grid-scale storage.

Stepien said his company later this year “will have a megawatt-scale storage unit.” He noted that because the wind blows “at the wrong time,” wind power and storage were a good match (this has occurred to even dumb ones people, like me).

Stepien did not field any questions; the other three panelists did not address him (or storage. Yet I thought I heard him talk about small-scale energy storage.

My question, not yet something to which you can get an answer, is: How long will it be before storage units small enough to put in my garage are available (and priced reasonably)? If the house is built efficiently and has rooftop solar (and solar tiles on exterior walls)…could an energy-generating house work? The solar tiles & rooftop modules would feed DC power to the batteries, which love DC.

What if the Sun doesn’t shine? The house could buy power from the local utility, refueling at off-peak hours (when electricity is cheaper).

Does this all seem, to you, a pipe dream? Consider this: Nissan is working on a battery for EVs that will provide a 400-mile range (the Leaf currently has a 100-mile range on a good day).

Could that battery also be used in my garage?

Storage without incentives

David Mohre of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, was the 4^th panelist at the session. He made an introductory point: Where most investor-owned utilities (yes, the acronym is IOU) average 38 power users per mile of distribution line, NRECA members have an average of 7 customers/mile.

While energy storage is a vital piece of the renewable energy pie, Mohre wanted to make another point: NRECA members are already doing storage (he provided a short list of very interesting installations). AND: They have been doing it for years.

“There were no incentives for co-operatives to make investments [in energy storage] at all…[they did it] to keep costs low and keep the lights on,” he said.

A necessary piece of the renewable energy infrastructure that might be built out without subsidies? Yes, that’s what the guy said.