Grid-Level Energy Storage

As useful as renewable energy sources are, they need to be backed up by storage systems. Ocean Battery is a new design for an energy storage system that functions a bit like a hydroelectric dam at the bottom of the sea.

A colossal US$22 billion infrastructure project will send Australian sunshine more than 3,100 miles to Singapore, via high-voltage undersea cables. Opening in 2027, it'll be the largest solar farm and battery storage facility in history.

Carbon dioxide may finally get its chance to become a solution in the climate crisis. Italy's Energy Dome says its CO2 batteries will store energy at less than half the cost of lithium "big batteries," while also being very responsive to load demand.

Boston's Form Energy says its iron-air batteries store up to 100 hours' worth of energy at a tenth the cost of a lithium battery farm. They could make a huge contribution to long-term storage as the world makes its transition toward renewable energy.

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have come up with a new design that addresses a number of shortcomings with current molten salt batteries, demonstrating one that can be constructed far more cheaply than currently available versions.

This new buoyancy energy storage system harnesses a powerful force familiar to anyone who's tried to hold a beach ball underwater, and it could offer grid-scale energy storage cheaper than batteries – as well as super-cheap hydrogen compression.

California is set to be home to two new compressed-air energy storage facilities – each claiming the crown for world’s largest non-hydro energy storage system. Developed by Hydrostor, the facilities will have an output of 500 MW and capacity of 4 GWh.

Australia’s Hunter Valley is set to become home to the world’s biggest battery. At 1.2 gigawatts, it will set a new global benchmark – albeit one that’s sure to be eclipsed as the benefits of these giant grid-scale batteries become better understood.

By focusing on the way lithium moves between the two electrodes, scientists in the Netherlands have come up with a new battery design that promises much faster charging rates, which could help improve the grid storage capability of renewable energy.

A surprisingly simple new energy storage system is built on blocks that store thermal energy like melted chocolate chips in a muffin. The team says they’re efficient, scalable, safe, inexpensive, and can be used in existing coal-fired power plants.

A Scottish company called Gravitricity has now broken ground on a demonstrator facility for a creative new system that stores energy in the form of “gravity” by lifting and dropping huge weights.

A South Australia-based startup says it's built a thermal energy storage device with a lifetime of at least 20 years​ that can store six times more energy than lithium-ion batteries per volume, for 60-80 percent of the price.