Senators Martin Henrich of New Mexico and Angus King of Maine have introduced a bill that would establish mandated national targets to deploy energy storage technologies, according to Utility Dive. If enacted, writes The Energy Collective, the bill would require major utilities to procure enough energy storage capacity to meet over 8 GW by the end of 2020 and 18 GW by the end of 2024. These represent about 1 percent and 2 percent, respectively, of the country’s current peak demand of 824 GW. GTM Research predicts that under a business as usual scenario, the country will install 4 GW.
The bill allows several different forms of storage: pumped hydro (the most common type of storage currently), compressed air, batteries, thermal, flywheels, hydrogen fuel cells, capacitors, and superconducting magnets. It is modeled on California’s storage requirement of 1,325 MW by 2024—a rule that has already resulted in 250 MW of energy storage from Southern California Edison alone.
The New Hampshire Union Leader explains how the bill would help promote solar. The article also suggests the mandate has little chance of passing on its own, but it could potentially be included as part of broader, bipartisan energy legislation. Furthermore, the fact that the legislation has been introduced highlights the growing momentum that this technology has seen.
Navigant Research has released a report on the top 12 energy storage system integrators. Although the full report is intended for industry participants, not end users, the list of vendors in the Executive Summary could be useful to any energy manager seeking to benefit from energy storage.
