Indeed, the California storage projects could eventually replace three natural-gas facilities in the region, two of which are peaker plants.īut much beyond this role, batteries run into real problems. This peaker role is precisely the one that most of the new and forthcoming lithium-ion battery projects are designed to fill. “The gas peaker business is pretty close to ending, and lithium-ion is a great replacement,” he says. Lithium-ion batteries could compete economically with these natural-gas peakers within the next five years, says Marco Ferrara, a cofounder of Form Energy, an MIT spinout developing grid storage batteries. These are smaller facilities, frequently fueled by natural gas today, that can afford to operate infrequently, firing up quickly when prices and demand are high. Today’s battery storage technology works best in a limited role, as a substitute for “peaking” power plants, according to a 2016 analysis by researchers at MIT and Argonne National Lab. If we plan to rely on them for massive amounts of storage as more renewables come online-rather than turning to a broader mix of low-carbon sources like nuclear and natural gas with carbon capture technology-we could be headed down a dangerously unaffordable path. These batteries are far too expensive and don’t last nearly long enough, limiting the role they can play on the grid, experts say. They’re fueling growing optimism that these giant batteries will allow wind and solar power to displace a growing share of fossil-fuel plants.īut there’s a problem with this rosy scenario. The California projects are among a growing number of efforts around the world, including Tesla’s 100-megawatt battery array in South Australia, to build ever larger lithium-ion storage systems as prices decline and renewable generation increases. 0009 percent of the electricity the state uses each year). Collectively, they would add enough storage capacity to the grid to supply about 2,700 homes for a month (or to store about. The 300-megawatt facility is one of four giant lithium-ion storage projects that Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest utility, asked the California Public Utilities Commission to approve in late June. If state regulators sign off, however, it could be the site of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery project by late 2020, helping to balance fluctuating wind and solar energy on the California grid.
A pair of 500-foot smokestacks rise from a natural-gas power plant on the harbor of Moss Landing, California, casting an industrial pall over the pretty seaside town.