Report – Clean Energy Council, 4 June 2024

The future of long duration energy storage: keeping the lights on in a carbon constrained world

Australia’s power systems are going through a process of rapid decarbonisation. This is central to meeting national emissions reduction commitments.

The pathway to power system decarbonisation has four foundations – generation, transmission, energy storage and customer load. Each of these foundations complement and reinforce each other, that is if they are effectively coordinated. This coordination is key to maintaining a reliable supply of electricity at the lowest possible cost for consumers. Energy storage plays a key role in this coordination, helping reduce the need for both generation and transmission build, and driving marked reduction in overall system costs.

Alternative Long Duration Energy Storage (ALDES) technologies are rapidly emerging as effective and complementary to reinforcing these established types of energy storage. Across a range of mechanical, electrochemical, and thermal technologies, ALDES exhibit particular characteristics that can be used to bring down the total cost of the transition while also reducing environmental and social impacts.

This report provides an introduction to ALDES, exploring the key ALDES technology families and the context in which they will operate. It explores the specific roles these technologies will play in delivering a secure and reliable supply of electricity. Finally, it explores the various policy reform areas that can be pursued to accelerate the market uptake of these promising technologies.

Key findings:

  • ALDES and long duration energy storage generally are key to maintaining reliability of supply. Energy storage complements transmission and renewables, moving energy through time to when it’s most needed while reducing total infrastructure required to be built, lowering costs and customer energy bills.
  • Australia must start building tomorrow’s post-coal energy system right now. Renewable generation, transmission and long duration energy storage must be ready well in advance as ageing coal-fired power stations are decommissioned, move to changed operational patterns or are mothballed.
  • Nuclear and gas are not the solution. Nuclear is an uneconomic technology and is a poor fit for Australia. Gas generation may play a small role in the energy transition, however, it simply cannot provide enough energy while staying within carbon budgets. Underlying pipeline and gas supply constraints will also limit its viability as a long term solution.

Read the full report here: https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2024-06/apo-nid327045.pdf.