Batteries will play a major role in energy storage as the UK embraces an ‘energy revolution’, the UK National Grid has said for the first time.
In the utility’s annual ‘Future Energy Scenarios’ (FES) report, the National Grid says the cost of lithium-ion batteries could halve by 2019, only to halve again by the early 2020s.
It also hinted that ‘commercial and regulatory changes which are expected in the next 12 months’ could be key to the future of large-scale storage technologies, potentially increasing storage capacity from 3GW to 11GW in 2030, and 18GW in 2040.
“We are in the midst of an energy revolution with a shift to demand side response, an exponential rise in renewables and the uptake of new technology such as electric vehicles,” said Marcus Stewart, Head of Energy Insights at the National Grid.
Supercapacitors and flow batteries have not been included in the FES because the company considers the technologies to be in their infancy.
“At present, new storage technologies are still not able to directly compete with the other more established flexibility providers,” says the report.
“However, the forecast rapid fall in costs means that this is likely to become reality in the short to medium term.”
When a FES 2015 case study identified storage as an essential part of the ‘energy revolution’, 68 submissions of interest were received in response to calls for tenders, two thirds of them from battery companies.
The tender outcomes will be released at the end of August this year.
