Renewable energy sources are clean and low (or no) carbon. But the two most prominent renewable energy sources - solar and wind power - are both intermittent, and worse, there is no sun at night. Significant volatility is present in the generation of wind power as well, even over a day. If the world has to rely for a large part of their needs on these renewable sources of energy, it needs to be able to store electricity in order to eliminate, or at least minimize, the intermittency challenge. Battery storage is by far the most prominent of all electricity storage systems today.
The global battery energy storage market is expected to witness some of the fastest growths any industry will see during the 2020-2030 period, from about 5 GWh in 2020 to over 300 GWh by 2030, a 60 fold growth in ten years. This growth will be primarily driven by battery use in renewable energy power plants and electric mobility.
Some of the main battery technologies used for power and mobility sectors - lead acid, lithium-ion to name the two most prominent - are very well established. A few others are close to commercialization while some promising battery technologies such as solid state batteries are still in the research stage. One can expect innovations to happen across almost all types of batteries during the 2020-2030 period.
By “firming” low carbon power sources, and by enabling electric mobility which could also be powered by renewable power, batteries present a powerful support for decarbonizing the world. Some of the key challenges for batteries include the high cost of Li-ion batteries (though it is coming down fast) and challenges with battery disposal post end of life (though emerging Li-ion recycling technologies could take care of this challenge too).
While the scope for battery innovations during the 2020-2030 period will be diverse, high impact innovations can be expected around grid scale batteries, cost decreases in Li-ion batteries, fast charging Li-ion batteries, redox flow batteries, innovations in battery management systems, battery testing & standardization, and battery recycling.
Estimates suggest that battery installed capacity could grow from about 30 GWh in 2020 to over 500 GWh by 2030, a 15-20 fold increase.
While these numbers indicate the impressive installation leaps that battery storage will take over the next decade, a large portion of this growth - and its real decarbonization potential - will emerge from its extended ecosystem effects.
With renewable power (excluding hydro power) capacities expected to be about 4 TW by 2030, the decarbonization potential for these sources is immense. But in order to realize the full potential of renewable power sources, power storage in batteries will play a critical role.
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