Energy storage is a way to capture and store electricity to lower energy costs, improve grid reliability, and solve the intermittency of renewables. Energy storage is one of the most essential technologies in the energy industry.
The 2020 Cost and Performance Assessment analyzed energy storage systems from 2 to 10 hours. The 2022 Cost and Performance Assessment analyzes storage system at additional 24- and 100-hour durations.
Electricity storage is currently an economic solution of-grid in solar home systems and mini-grids where it can also increase the fraction of renewable energy in the system to as high as 100% (IRENA, 2016c). The same applies in the case of islands or other isolated grids that are reliant on diesel-fired electricity (IRENA, 2016a; IRENA, 2016d).
This study shows that battery electricity storage systems offer enormous deployment and cost-reduction potential. By 2030, total installed costs could fall between 50% and 60% (and battery cell costs by even more), driven by optimisation of manufacturing facilities, combined with better combinations and reduced use of materials.
Today, an estimated 4.67 TWh of electricity storage exists. This number remains highly uncertain, however, given the lack of comprehensive statistics for renewable energy storage capacity in energy rather than power terms.
Importantly, the profitability of serving prospective energy-storage customers even within the same geography and paying a similar tariff can vary by $90 per kilowatt of energy storage installed per year because of customer-specific behaviors.