Overview of Small Scale Electric Energy Storage Systems suitable for dedicated coupling with Renewable Micro Sources

Renewable Micro Sources (RENMSs) will strongly contribute to the accelerating electrification trend currently ongoing. Furthermore, the upcoming mass electrification of automotive, with the related pulverized, but numerically important, electricity storage potential, suggests to start considering how to guarantee a stable and sustainable grid power. In this frame, it is interesting to consider the possibility to couple to each RENMS a dedicated Small Scale Electrical Energy Storage System (SS-EESS), so to be able to dispatch out of the RENMS a grid-compliant RENMS-produced power. An overview of SS-EESSs is hence hereby given, under the points of view of their current main technical features and their prospected costs. It is found that mechanical-based systems like Small Scale Compressed Energy Storage and Flywheels are interesting options for RENMS/SS-EESS dedicated coupling, although fast technological progress in the field of SS-EESSs and the emergence of a clear trend towards joining more energy storage principles (like batteries-supercapacitors assemblies) will likely change the landscape of this field in the next years. In this view, further studies over dedicated coupling of SS-EESSs and RENMSs could help to avoid difficulties in dealing with exploding electricity storage problems in the next years.