On Monday, we took a look at a report from the US Department of
Energy, produced by its Electricity Advisory Committee. That
report paints a grim picture of the future of the grid that
exists today, but it was accompanied by two additional analyses
that focused on the technologies that may significantly alter
both the grid and its future. One of those focused on the
potential role that energy storage can play as the grid evolves,
and evaluates a number of technologies that are either on or
near the market. Most of the presentation of stored power has
focused on its role in smoothing over the variability in
renewable power sources like solar and wind. But storage can
also solve a variety of problems in the existing grid. The rise
in demand that comes during peak hours (and due to interruption
of existing supplies) generally requires plants that can ramp up
very quickly, which basically means natural gas turbines. Using
storage could act as a bridge to allow other types of generating
capacity that take longer t