Energy storage is tagged as the key enabler for any comprehensive transition to a renewable electricity supply. Storage will be essential to ensure stable voltage as sun- and wind-dependent generation flows into or subsides from the grid at unpredictable rates, while the ability to capture surplus generation for later use would provide logistical and economic advantages to help squeeze fossil-fuel-fired sources out of the market.
For now, though, emergent entrepreneurs face some barriers in a market designed around a non-durable commodity. Industry insiders speaking at the Energy Storage Canada conference in Toronto last week celebrated technological advances, but stressed that viable, steady revenue will be needed to propel the technology into the mainstream.
“We’re trying to get an industry off the ground and energy storage is the holy grail that everybody has always talked about,” observed Jim Fonger, senior business developer with the renewable energy and conservation consulting firm, Ameresco Canada. “Opportunities are in where the electricity system is going in the future as opposed to where it is today.”
“As we talk about decarbonization in power markets globally, that’s going to require wind and solar. You can’t do that without resources to store energy,” concurred Ben Grunfeld, managing director with the professional services firm, Navigant.
Other strategists suggested that getting to that future could turn on securing long-term contracts, capitalizing on climate volatility and exploiting existing market-shaping mechanisms like Ontario’s global adjustment price add-on and the associated Industrial Conservation Initiative (ICI). Policies and regulations for achieving Canada’s target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30 per cent compared to 2005 levels by 2030 are also expected to play a role.
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