20150930-IRENA-Electricity_Storage_Technology_Brief_28页_486kb

IRENA Technology Policy Brief on Electricity Storage: Summary

Introduction
IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency, promotes renewable energy adoption. The IEA-ETSAP program focuses on energy/economy/environment/technical analysis using models like MARKAL/TIMES. The brief highlights electricity storage's role in grids with high renewable shares.

Key Insights
Electricity storage converts energy into other forms (e.g., potential, thermal, chemical) and is crucial for grid balance, peak load management, and renewable integration. Despite challenges like high costs, it is growing due to increasing renewable shares and peak electricity prices.

Storage Technologies Overview

• Pumped Hydro: Dominant (95% market), high efficiency (70-80%), but large-scale only; good for grid stability.
• Other Mature/Semiconductor Tech: Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), Flywheels, Supercapacitors, Vanadium Flow Cells, lead-acid batteries (portable use only).
• Leading Innovators: Lithium-ion batteries show promise for broader applications (e.g., electric vehicles, distributed storage) with cost reductions.
• Superconducting Magnetic Storage (SMES) offers high efficiency but high costs.

Performance and Costs
Performance varies with technology and use case (e.g., backup power needs immediate response). Costs are high for most technologies except pumped hydro and some batteries; potential cost reductions due to technology scaling and R&D.

Potential and Barriers
Global storage capacity is modest (110 GW), expected to grow to 300 GW by 2050. Barriers include site limitations, high R&D costs, and policy gaps. Market growth is driven by smart grids and renewable deployment.

Market Projections
The storage market is set to grow from $1.5 billion in 2010 to ~$35 billion by 2020, with Li-ion batteries expected to reach $6 billion in this period.

Recommendations
Policy support is essential for market uptake. Further research and investment can enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and promote widespread adoption.