With the rising popularity of emission-free mobility, it’s crucial that we don’t take the promises of an eco-friendly future at face-value. As we make our switch to the battery-powered vehicles, we need to keep in mind not only the energy sources we use, but also recognize the logistics of keeping up with the continuously increasing energy demands. According to a report published by Deloitte, we have our work cut out for us.
The long-term switch to electromobility will put quite a strain on the global electricity sectors – energy providers need to prepare for a sizable increase in demand within the next few decades. The perspective has significantly accelerated the growth of the energy storage market – the current estimates say it will be valued at $26 billion by 2022. This kind of growth could not be possible without the recently popularized method of energy storage: batteries.
Once deemed too expensive for use on a large scale, the market value of lithium-ion batteries has dropped dramatically within the past few years, with a price per kWh decreasing by almost 80 percent. Deloitte’s experts theorize that the price drop was caused by the popularization of EVs – the surge in production volumes of batteries dynamically led to a decrease in manufacture costs. As a result, the industry started slowly backing away from using pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), and turned towards battery-based warehouses instead.
However, apart from being economically viable, the technology has found its home in modern electroenergetic systems across the world for an additional reason: it could solve the issue of unreliability in renewable energy sources. Many energy providers have taken to modernizing their energy networks in the past few years, but their turn towards sources such as photo voltaic farms has presented an entirely new set of challenges.
Here’s where energy warehouses can help, as they can be used to store the excess renewable energy produced in periods of lower demand, and return it to the grid during periods of peak demand. These systems base on batteries, and are characterized by high flexibility, which makes them possible to be deployed nearly on the spot. – explains Marek Chlebus, Advisory Department Director, Expert in the Energy and Natural Resources Team at Deloitte.
The battery-based energy warehouses are yet to arrive in Poland – currently, the local energy storage market revolves around the aforementioned PHES. Deloitte predicts that the situation may change in the following years: Along with the development of smart energy grids, battery-based energy warehouses will gain importance. Their construction is now an integral part of projects related to the modernization of power grids carried out by leading distribution system operators. – said Chlebus.
For more information about battery storage market, make sure to check out Deloitte’s full report about the subject.
