Utility-Scale Storage: If, When, What Type, How Much, and Where?

NOTE: This webinar has been postponed indefinitely.

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The Clean Energy Solutions Center, an initiative of the Clean Energy Ministerial, in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is hosting a no-cost webinar titled, Utility Scale Storage: If, When, What Type, How Much, and Where? The webinar is part of the GreeningTheGrid.org technical platform, which provides information and technical assistance to address the challenges related to grid modernization and the integration of variable renewable energy to the power system.

Affordable energy storage is sometimes referred to as the “holy grail” in the context of achieving high penetrations of solar and wind energy in the power system. With the costs of solar, wind and battery-based energy storage technologies declining dramatically in recent years, power sector stakeholders around the world are faced with policy and investment decisions related to the role of energy storage in a high-variable renewable energy system. Yet, the interactions between high variable renewable energy penetration and energy storage are power system-specific and in many cases are not well understood.

The webinar will provide a state-of-the-industry overview of the considerations related to cost-effective deployment of energy storage in power systems pursuing high penetrations of variable renewable energy. The webinar will explore common questions, such as:

• Under what conditions is storage an attractive option relative to other sources of power system flexibility?
• What services do storage offer a power system with high variable renewable energy penetrations, and how might the value of these services change in different power system contexts (e.g., moderate versus high variable renewable energy penetrations, large versus small power systems, market and non-market systems)?
• What tools are available to help decision makers understand which type, what size, and where storage could be beneficial to their power systems?
• How might the downward trend in battery storage costs change how storage is considered as an integration solution?
• What lessons can other countries and power markets take away from the U.S. experience with energy storage?

The webinar will be presented and moderated by Paul Denholm and Jaquelin Cochran from NREL.

Paul Denholm, Ph.D., is a member of the Grid Systems Analysis Group in the Strategic Energy Analysis Center at NREL. Dr. Denholm is a leading researcher in grid applications for energy storage and solar energy. He pioneered a variety of research methods for understanding the technical, economic and environmental benefits and impacts of the large-scale deployment of renewable electricity generation. He has delivered over 100 invited presentations to agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the World Bank, and the International Energy Agency. He has co-authored over 100 articles related to renewable energy integration.

Jaquelin Cochran, Ph.D., is the group manager for the Market & Policy Analysis Group in the Strategic Energy Analysis Center at NREL. Dr. Cochran analyzes policies and market designs that create an enabling framework for emerging energy technologies (e.g., renewable energy, demand response, and distributed generation), with a focus on best practices for grid integration of renewable electricity. She recently co-led a renewable energy grid integration study of India. Before joining NREL, Dr. Cochran was an Assistant Professor of Natural Resource Management with KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years with the Polish Foundation for Energy Efficiency (FEWE) in Krakow. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the Energy & Resources Group at the University of California at Berkeley.

The presentations will be followed by an interactive question and answer session with the audience.