The global market for electrical energy storage is dynamic, urgent and at nearly a gigawatt, rapidly growing. The world is experiencing a surge in intermittent power generation facilities such as renewables, but great challenges remain.
Renewables facilities, for instance, require ever-more backup capacity. In addition, utility companies have to balance demand and supply by building up huge reserves the like of which have never been seen before.
Moreover, regulators are introducing new rules; energy bidding is becoming more sophisticated and electrical energy prices more volatile. On top of this, electrical grid stability and frequency control are far more complicated than in the past.
Currently, there is great hype about the capabilities of lithium batteries. The main application where lithium excels is mobility, due to its good power density and relatively small size. Major companies such as Tesla, LG and BYD advocate this technology as the best and brightest solution for global electrical energy storage needs. Many believe that lithium will become the new oil and some countries, like China, are heavily subsidizing the industry in order to gain political leverage and market share.
Lithium batteries, however, are not the magical one-solution-fits-all for energy storage requirements. Indeed, lithium has recently experienced a significant drop in price, and huge over-production capacities have been built up. Driving this downward trend are above all Tesla, which is building a “Giga Factory” in Nevada, and China, which actively plans to increase lithium battery manufacturing.
But despite the hype from these major players, the fact is that lithium has many downsides compared, for example, to flow batteries and other emerging battery technologies. The extensively covered cases of exploding Samsung smartphones caused by their lithium batteries have raised grave safety and reliability concerns.
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