Energy Storage Set to Change the Energy Sector
I have been joining many others in predicting that energy storage will change forever the electricity sector. As its costs sharply decrease every year, we are seeing more and more projects. The underlying dynamic is that the grid's electricity capacity is used very inefficiently. This is as famous duck curve, which shows how the capacity is under-utilized over much of the day: Source: Stanford University, California Independent System Operator (CAISO)'s "duck curve" (2016). The average utilization ate for the grid's capacity is about 55%. A large chunk of the generation capacity is only used a fraction of the year. This is highly inefficient and expensive to energy consumers. Energy storage breaks this pattern by flattening the curve, allowing electricity produced in low demand periods to be available in high demand periods. Energy storage is now a market reality and will be an increasingly important part of the grid as well as individual end-user