Last week, General Electric announced (pdf) a $69 million investment by GE and others in Watertown, MA battery company A123. Some of those funds will go toward the production of car batteries for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, some will also be used to produce utility-scale batteries that can help balance the addition of variable, renewable generation to the power grid.
Good news for batteries is good news for renewable energy, since cost-effective storage will make it easier to manage the variability issues that arise with the introduction of large amounts of renewable resources to the grid. Utilities are increasingly turning to energy storage to manage their use of wind and solar power, and storage is a key component of the much-ballyhooed smart grid.
A123 makes advanced lithium batteries; a technology that has drawn a fair amount of attention in the press of late. But advanced lithium batteries are just one of many potential grid-scale storage technologies. The United States currently has about 22,000 MW of storage in the grid today (about ¼ of the global total), the vast majority of which is pumped storage hydro. Even older technologies are seeing innovation, with updated grid-scale versions of lead acid batteries and new twists on pumped storage hydro, like Riverbank Power’s plans to build underground pumped storage by digging huge reservoirs 2,000 feet beneath Wiscassett, Maine.
Given its focus on renewable energy, it’s not surprising that the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) includes significant support for storage technologies, with grants for manufacturing advanced batteries (and training workers to make them) and tax credits and grants for potential customers (like renewable energy suppliers and purchasers of hybrid vehicles). Most recently, the Department of Energy announced a $615 million draft Funding Opportunity Announcement for Smart Grid Demonstration Projects that include funding for “utility scale energy storage demonstrations.”
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