Which energy storage technologies are included in the 2020 cost and performance assessment?

The 2020 Cost and Performance Assessment provided installed costs for six energy storage technologies: lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, lead-acid batteries, vanadium redox flow batteries, pumped storage hydro, compressed-air energy storage, and hydrogen energy storage.

What conditions make seasonal storage cost-competitive?

In an effort to better understand the conditions that make seasonal storage cost-competitive, we explore the 2050 power- and energy-related cost targets at which seasonal storage becomes profitable with 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, and 1 month of discharge durations.

Why is seasonal energy storage important?

Energy storage at all timescales, including the seasonal scale, plays a pivotal role in enabling increased penetration levels of wind and solar photovoltaic energy sources in power systems.

What drives the cost competitiveness of seasonal storage?

Note that the slope of the iso-BCR lines for 1 week, 2 weeks and 1 month of discharge duration indicates that the cost competitiveness of seasonal storage is mostly driven by the energy-related costs, while power-related costs, efficiency, and lifetime play a less important role.

Is seasonal energy storage better than short-duration energy storage?

For short-duration storage this is mitigated by decomposing the problem into many smaller problems and running sequentially; however, for seasonal energy storage the model must consider the benefit of shifting energy across many months, thereby limiting the ability to decompose the problem temporally and again raising computational concerns.

Does seasonal thermal energy storage provide economic competitiveness against existing heating options?

Revelation of economic competitiveness of STES against existing heating options. Seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) holds great promise for storing summer heat for winter use. It allows renewable resources to meet the seasonal heat demand without resorting to fossil-based back up. This paper presents a techno-economic literature review of STES.