Utility and Large-Scale Energy Storage Part 1 We often hear the term “holy grail of energy storage� from startups (looking for funding) and investors (looking for the winning disruptive technology) that will magically make wind and solar energy 24/7 dispatchable power sources. Venture firms invested more than half a billion dollars into batteries and fuel cells in 2007 but only a tiny fraction of that went to large-scale energy storage technologies. That’s because there is no holy grail of energy storage – there are big batteries and big fuel cells but the premium cost of this type of storage limits the uptake of these technologies. In most cases, initial applications are going to cover intermittencies in the grid, not enabling unpredictable renewable energy sources like wind and solar. These batteries typically act as peak-load buffers to delay the costs of upgrading (expensive) power transmission infrastructure. A $5M dollar battery is compelling if it can delay a $50M dollar transmission upgrade. Brave utilities like Xcel are field testing “Really Big Storage.� Greentech Media’s Jennifer Kho’s recent article on Xcel Energy reported on the field testing of a 1MW battery to store wind energy. AEP is operationally deploying three of NGK’s 2MW NaS (big pdf file) batteries on its distribution grid for back-up and additional capacity at an expected deployed cost of ~$27M. NaS is one of the few technologies that can deliver up to eight hours of MW range storage. NGK’s 2MW NaS battery is 500 feet tall. VRB Power provides MW-scale storage with their VRB (Vanadium Redox Battery), also called a regenerative fuel cell. These tanks are 1000 feet high and hold a lot of tasty, tasty vanadium electrolyte. Note Oompaloompas tending innards of redox battery at Wonka HQ. Israeli start-up, Enstorage (large pdf) and VC-funded Deeya Energy, (offices in California and India) are also working on Regenerative Fuel Cells with various electrolyte species. As of now, these technologies are just too expensive for real world utilities to rationalize their deployment. More on these firms and these technologies in the Part 2…