There is a great focus on achieving a green world. Industries globally are absorbed in bringing down their carbon footprint by adopting renewable energy sources to generate electricity. This coupled with the fall in the price of utility-scale batteries is giving way to battery energy storage systems as a smart solution to transition to a decarbonized world.
Battery energy storage systems are expected to play a key role in powering a renewable future. Post the Paris agreement, governments have enhanced their countries commitment to reduce carbon emissions and renewable sources of energy became the focal point of their strategy.
India for instance has an aspirational renewable energy target of 500 GW by 2030 and expects 50% of the nation’s requirement to come from renewables. To swiftly approach obligations such as these, the dependency on natural sources such as solar and wind for lower-emission electricity production becomes unavoidable. Battery energy storage systems offer a huge opportunity in this arena as they can stabilize the demand and supply fluctuations, meet peak demand, reduce costs and play a key role in integrating huge volumes of sporadic renewable energy.
How will battery energy storage systems achieve the green dream?
Reliability by smoothing out the intermittent supply of renewable power
Battery energy storage systems ensure a steady supply of electricity. Wind and solar have their unique drawbacks. They are intermittent resources – the sun does not shine all day long and wind resources are not present in every region. This brings about a need for frequency regulation in the grid.
When there is no sun or the wind pressure drops, adequate energy is not fed into the grid, leading to instability as the demand is not met. Similarly, when the sun and wind are present in abundance the limitation of the grid prevents it from capitalizing on the excess. To ensure flexibility and balance the demand and supply of power battery energy storage systems come into play. They do this by storing excess when the production is high and offering the stored energy during peak demands or when renewable production is low.
Decreases Environmental Impacts
Energy storage allows electricity to be saved for a time when it is needed the most. This brings about grid efficiency and enables it to lessen greenhouse gas emissions. It offsets the need to build peak power plants and conventional power generators that emit pollution. Since the energy supply mix gets a higher volume of no-carbon resources, the overall adversity of environmental impact goes down.
Reduced costs
Battery energy storage systems’ costs are going down and they are emerging as a cost-effective solution to successfully integrate a larger share of wind and solar renewables in the power systems globally. Over the past seven years, the cost of lithium-ion batteries has fallen by around 80% providing a huge potential for them to play a central role in energy markets. Battery energy storage systems become an economically viable solution for C&I industries to draw power from during peak demand slots, subject to the DISCOM regulations.
By integrating higher shares of renewable energy into the grid and storing the excess generation battery energy storage systems bring about reliability and uninterrupted supply of power, thereby transforming the entire energy sector. This dependable storage, cost effectiveness and flexibility enhancement of the grid is deeming battery energy storage systems a serious component in the long-term viability of a renewables powered future.
Renewable energy developers such as Amp Energy India play an important role in bringing about this green shift. They possess the unique capability to straddle everything from solar rooftop installation to battery energy storage systems through their C&I and utility scale renewable energy projects, thereby acting as a one-stop shop for sustainable solutions.
