U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz has released a report on grid energy storage to the members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
According to the DOE, the report was commissioned at the request of Sen. Ron Wyden, committee chairman, and identifies the benefits of grid energy storage, the challenges that must be addressed to enable broader use, and the efforts of the department, in conjunction with industry and other government organizations, to meet those challenges.
"Developing and deploying energy storage opens the door to adding more renewable power to the grid, which is essential to the fight against climate change," says Wyden. "Energy storage will also help lower consumer costs by saving low-cost power for peak times and making renewable energy available when it's needed the most, not just when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining."
According to the DOE, the report identifies four key challenges that must be addressed to enable energy storage: the development of cost-effective energy storage technologies, validated reliability and safety, an equitable regulatory environment, and industry acceptance.
The DOE says efforts to address these challenges include integrated activities by the department's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Office of Science, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
The report is now available here.
