How Depleting Fossil Fuels are Resulting in Demand for Energy Storage?

With crude oil reserves declining at an alarming rate of 4 billion tons a year, dire consequences that await us in the future, with fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, predicted to be exhausted by 2052. To deal with the possibility of living in a fossil fuel-deprived world, the time to invest in energy storage systems couldn’t be more right. These systems are capable of serving as energy reserves for times when the demand is high. Companies are investing heavily in manufacturing cost-effective energy storage devices with better longevity. With depleting non-renewable energy sources, the emphasis is on utilizing renewable sources for power generation. For instance, considering the potential of the kinetic energy of stored water, technologies such as pumped hydro storage (PHS) are being developed, wherein water is stored in a reservoir and then released into a tank on a lower level for power generation.

A study published by P&S Intelligence claimed that from 6,275.4 megawatts in 2017, the installed capacity of the energy storage market would increase to 51,426.0 megawatts in near future at a 42.5% CAGR. Energy storage refers to the means adopted to store renewable energy to generate and meet the required demand for electricity optimally by supplying clean energy. Energy is stored in many ways, such as mechanical, chemical, electrochemical, fossil fuel, biological, and thermal. In 2017, the demand for power was maximally met by the mechanical means of energy storage, as the methods such as PHS, compressed air energy storage (CAES), and flywheels are extensively used for the generation of energy at a large scale.

The rising popularity of unconventional sources of energy generation is also due to the increasing awareness about the detrimental effects of pollution. Rapid urbanization and the growing demand for energy have impelled people to generate power from environment-friendly sources, such as solar, hydro, and wind. Being readily available, these sources don’t require extensive extraction and purification like fossil fuels and can be used for power generation cost-efficiently. Even though renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, may generate variable outputs, storage technologies are extremely helpful in maintaining a constant supply. Unlike fossil fuels that take longer to produce energy, storage technologies respond immediately by supplying energy to the power grid when the demand suddenly increases.

North America has been the largest energy storage market among all the regions, accounting for more than 35.0% of the global energy stored this way in 2017. Energy storage companies based in North America are rapidly developing infrastructure and facilities to meet the growing energy storage demand, which is why they continue to maintain a stronghold. Within the U.S., many states are investing in integrated resources planning, which is a necessary requirement for utility companies. Energy storage is also helping provide power backup in events of grid failure and repair.

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Created on Aug 27th 2019 15:54. Viewed 410 times.

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