Held once again in Düsseldorf, Germany’s huge exhibition center March 13–15, the 12th annual International Renewable Energy Storage (IRES) Conference and Energy Storage Europe Conference attracted roughly 4,500 international visitors, and more than 170 exhibitors, from over 60 nations.
While showcasing the latest in energy storage technologies, presenters discussed developing markets worldwide, offered detailed case studies, and explained how transforming renewable energy into hydrogen, both for storage and for additional applications, is becoming an ever-more cost-effective “green gas” solution.
Main themes at IRES (Figure 1) included flexible sector coupling and de-coupling as well as system-useful storage solutions that stabilize networks. Several speakers detailed how they see storage continuing to nibble around the edges of the grid as it’s currently configured. Many envisioned that, in the near-term, storage systems will essentially displace expensive fossil-fueled peaker plants, discharging banked emissions-free renewable-generated energy instead of relying on natural gas or coal.
Storage takes many forms: some of it is based on heat pumps and pumped hydro, some on banks of lithium-ion batteries, and now new hydrogen storage units. But all systems are geared to take advantage of ever-increasing amounts of cheap renewable energy from solar and wind. Indeed, as more renewables come online in Europe and worldwide, the need to balance load and demand as well as store intermittent energy has long been a driving factor. But as more comes online and prices fall, batteries-in-a-box container units and other mobile solutions are also finding niches both in “island” and distributed grids worldwide.
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