A boom in battery storage transforms the grid
Giant batteries are increasingly storing renewable power, helping to solve the challenge of intermittent supply.
A boom in battery storage is transforming electricity grids around the world, as giant banks of batteries increasingly store power generated by solar and wind for use when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing, helping to solve one of the central challenges of the transition to clean energy.
The deployment of grid-scale battery storage has surged, driven by the same plummeting costs that have powered the rise of solar, alongside rapid growth in the manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles and the grid. Massive storage installations are being connected to grids at a record pace.
The role of storage is pivotal. The great challenge of renewables like solar and wind is their variability, as their output rises and falls with the weather and the time of day. Batteries smooth this out, storing surplus power generated during sunny, windy periods and releasing it when demand is high or generation drops, making a grid dominated by renewables far more feasible.
In some regions, batteries are already reshaping electricity markets, soaking up cheap midday solar power and discharging it in the evening, reducing the need for fossil-fuelled plants that once filled those gaps and improving grid reliability.
Challenges remain, including securing sustainable supplies of the minerals batteries require and managing their full life cycle. But the rapid growth of storage represents a crucial piece of the clean energy puzzle, increasingly making it possible to rely on variable renewables around the clock. Together, the twin booms in solar and storage are accelerating the shift toward a cleaner, more flexible power system.