New York, 23 Sept 2024 — Today, on Global Energy Storage Day, the Long Duration Energy Storage Council celebrates the pivotal role energy storage solutions play in shaping a sustainable and resilient clean energy future and calls for accelerated action to scale and deploy these vital technologies.
The urgent need to address climate change and achieve net-zero carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement demands the rapid deployment of clean energy resources like wind and solar energy, and global governments have committed to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030.
Yet as the world transitions away from fossil fuels, energy storage solutions are essential to address the variable nature of renewable energy resources and keep the energy transition on track. Energy grids increasingly will need to store surplus clean energy generated during times of high renewable supply and lower demand, and then release that energy as power and industrial heat during times of high demand and when renewable energy supply is low. As demand for power and industrial heat intensifies due to continued population growth and expanded economic development this need will only grow.
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The capability of energy storage solutions to store and dispatch renewable energy when it is needed is a key component of the energy transition and is integral to tripling renewables capacity and achieving the Paris Agreement goals. Commitments made by governments to accelerate the energy transition and rapidly develop renewable energy must be matched by efforts to deploy and scale energy storage technologies. Additionally, storage duration must increase as clean energy scales and the energy transition progresses. Energy storage targets must be set at the upcoming COP29 global climate conference to ensure these energy storage assets are deployed on time and at scale.
“The global community will not achieve its decarbonisation targets without energy storage, and increasingly energy storage of longer durations,” Julia Souder, Chief Executive Officer of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, said. “As clean energy sources continue to decline in cost and assume a greater share of the energy mix, we need to accelerate the buildout of the enabling infrastructure to integrate these resources efficiently and cost-effectively. An energy storage target commitment at COP29 is essential in supporting energy storage at scale, and this commitment must be followed by enabling market and policy incentives to allow these technologies to flourish.”
The LDES Council calls for governments at COP29 to agree to an ambitious yet achievable global energy storage target of 1.5 terawatts (TW) of power system storage by 2030 with progressively higher targets set for the following decade, including longer durations. This target is essential to support the deployment of 11 TW of renewables by 2030, which in turn is a necessary step to keeping the world on track to limit climate change to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. To complement this high-level target, the Long Duration Energy Storage Council sees a need for over 1 TW of LDES, including power and thermal storage, by 2030 and forecasts a need for up to 8 TW of long duration energy storage capacity by 2040 to deliver net zero, a 50-fold increase in current deployment levels.
While integrating renewable energy is a core value stream of energy storage, these technologies also support energy security, strengthen grid flexibility and resilience, and provide added ancillary grid benefits, like balancing supply and demand, frequency response, inertia and black start capabilities.
Market adoption of LDES is increasing as costs decline and recognition grows of the system and societal benefits LDES provides – creating a virtuous cycle of increased innovation and cost efficiencies.
A recent report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance found that the least expensive LDES technologies are already providing less expensive storage than lithium-ion batteries for durations over eight hours. Thermal energy storage and compressed air storage technologies, for example, had an average capital expenditure less than lithium-ion systems.
To learn more about the value of long duration energy storage and the need for a global energy storage pledge, visit https://globalrenewablesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GRA-Global-Storage-Target.pdf
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About the LDES Council
The LDES Council is a global non-profit with over 60 members across 20 countries. The LDES Council works to accelerate the decarbonisation of our world through the application of long duration energy storage (LDES). The LDES Council provides member-driven, fact-based guidance and research to governments, grid operators, and major electricity users on the deployment of long duration energy storage for society's benefit by decreasing emissions, lowering costs, and adding flexibility to energy systems to strengthen resilience.
Media contact:
Todd Zeranski
tzeranski@ldescouncil.com...
Read the full news release here
