The energy trilemma is widely recognised as the need to achieve a low-carbon, cost-effective and secure energy source. It’s like a three piece puzzle – it should be simple to complete – but the commercial models currently in use always leave a piece missing.

Fossil fuels are cost-effective and secure, but they are not low-carbon. Renewable energy is clean and cost-effective, but intermittent. As such, the majority of the world is currently reliant on generating energy from fossil fuels to fill the troughs in renewable energy supply. But if we are to meet the COP21 targets then it is vital that fossil fuels are gradually phased out.

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Energy storage is a new disruptive trend. It basically involves storing energy that can later be harnessed for electricity to power our homes, our cars – our future.

The first part of the future of clean energy is for all vehicles to move from polluting gasoline, diesel and natural gas to run on electricity. Hence, the electric vehicle (EV) boom has only just begun. Tony Seba, in his video on “clean energy disruption” and others, expect EVs to be cheaper than Internal Combustion Energy (ICE) cars by 2020, and this will signal the accelerated take-off of the EV boom. You can read more about the EV boom here andhere.

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Energy storage is coming in a big way in the U.S. and around the world, but before it does, the industry needs to figure out how installing batteries is going to make customers money. Building batteries in buildings or on the utility’s grid isn’t going to be done because it’s cool or somehow saves the planet — it’ll be done because it makes money. And energy storage has the ability to make a lot of money.

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If you thought renewable energy was the big thing of our times, you’d be only partially right. The bigger thing is energy storage – the key to making renewable energy sustainable and reliable; the key to making it practically useful and more than a fad.

There is a truly huge race on to create cheap storage systems, and the greener they are, the better. For instance, you know quinones? These chemical compounds — pigments that are found in a variety of plants — can be used as the basis of organic molecules to make flow batteries. One team of researchers at Harvard, no less, is working on just that: an organic flow battery that is cheap, environmentally friendly, and easily scalable.

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The US energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, believes the advances being made in storage technology means that the country will be completely decarbonised by the 2050s.

A global race, seen initially in Europe and the US is leading to a rapid acceleration in innovation that may dispense with the need for nuclear and thermal power by that time according to the technology’s backers, as the Achilles heel of intermittency will no longer impact on the overall effectiveness of renewables.

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Stem, one of the leading providers of commercial energy-storage systems, just added $100 million in new financing from energy infrastructure investor Starwood Energy Group. Stem’s project financing resources now top $350 million.

It’s going to take many billions in project financing to move the energy storage market from nascent to material — and Stem now leads in the ability to direct capital to commercial behind-the-meter storage projects. The deployments aim to combine big data, analytics and energy storage to benefit the ratepayer as well as the grid operator. 

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In June, the Obama administration announced a new series of policies and investments aimed at boosting U.S. energy-storage capacity. They say energy storage will play an integral role in reaching America’s renewable energy goals and can, ultimately, help fight climate change. Several companies were highlighted in this announcement for their commitments to invest in storage in the next 10 years.

We at Sunrun, were honored to be a part of this commitment – and here’s why.

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The advanced energy storage systems market size may reach USD 7.17 billion by 2022 and exceed 11 GW, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. (Independence, OH, US).

Asia pacific is forecast to witness highest gains at 15.8% CAGR up to 2022. Rising industrialization accompanied by enhanced consumer lifestyle in India and China are major reasons foster regional growth, says Global Market Insights.

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The federal government operates a vast network of office buildings, and they could soon become a massive new client for energy storage.

The General Services Administration, which oversees 10,000 workspaces for more than 1 million federal employees, announced at a White House summit in June that it would investigate the potential for storage on its buildings. That request for information will go out by mid-September and could lead to projects starting next year, GSA Chief Sustainability Officer Kevin Kampschroer said in an interview last week.

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South Korea’s largest utility has contracted battery developers Kokam to build a 36MW energy storage system at its Non-Gong substation in the south of the country.

The agreement, which was announced on Monday, will see the firm install two different lithium ion battery technologies on behalf of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) to help balance supply and demand.

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