Energy Storage & the Grid - From Characteristics to Impact [Point of View]

The paper presents the attributes of energy technologies that compared against one another, an approach that leads to overly simplistic caricatures from which improper conclusions are drawn about new technologies. The result for intermittent renewable energy resources such as wind and solar has been a public misperception that energy storage is needed for continued deployment of these technologies. This misperception persists despite continued expansion of renewable generation and systems-based technology analyses that conclude significant additional renewable energy deployments can be accommodated without additional energy storage. To understand the value of, and opportunities for, grid-scale storage, one must first understand the electricity grid.