Why Better Energy Storage Options Are Crucial for a Green Future

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report was a “Code Red” for human-driven global warming. The world has never been more aware of the dangers of climate change and the need to switch to green energy sources.

One of the building blocks of a green energy future, is the often-undiscussed energy storage capacity. This element of the drive toward green energy has been neglected in many states in the United States and in many countries across the world. Without the energy storage capacity to support green energy, a successful transition to green energy is impossible.

New Report Highlights Importance of Energy Storage for Clean Energy

A recent report, the “Pennsylvania Energy Storage Assessment”, published by Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), highlighted the importance of expanding energy storage capacity. The report is a useful point of discussion for people in Pennsylvania and across the United States, who are passionate about the transition to green energy. The report emphasized the fact that it is impossible to transition to the cleaner and more resilient electricity grid that policymakers have been aiming for, without this expansion of capacity.

The report explains how the energy storage capacity helps to develop a greener electricity grid. It also suggested programs and policies that Pennsylvania could adopt in order to expand its energy storage capacity.

At present, wind and solar power are not on-demand energy sources. Consequently, energy storage capacity is vital in building toward the achievement of green energy goals. If Pennsylvania and other states can build the energy storage capacity to curb concerns regarding the ability of wind and solar energy to meet energy needs regardless of whether it is windy or sunny, then we will have gone a long way toward green energy.

Pennsylvania has created an Energy Storage Consortium which will begin business on Sept. 28 with its first meeting. The consortium will meet on a quarterly basis in order to develop policies and to promote strategies to encourage the expansion of energy storage capacity. The state has begun to see with clear glasses that energy storage is extremely important to its green energy goals. Pennsylvania has already identified ways that it will expand its energy storage capacity and grow its green energy market.

The world has already started to witness the effects of climate change, especially with the emergence of extreme weather phenomena and the spread of high temperature conditions. Adopting a wind or solar-plus storage policy will put a break on climate change, or at least slow it down. It’s essential that wind and solar power become a part of the daily energy sources, not just of Pennsylvanians, but of people across the United States, and, indeed, the world. Expanding energy storage capacity is also an insurance policy against extreme weather-related electricity disruptions.

The DEP recommends that Pennsylvania set an energy storage procurement target, make changes to utility planning and procurement processes regarding energy storage, streamline state as well as local permitting, update the process by which distributed energy resources are interconnected, and fund research and development in the field of green energy storage technologies.

New Energy Storage Options Are Overlooked in the Importance of Sustainable Energy

Sustainable energy is becoming a lot more popular in recent years. However, new green energy solutions will be of little value if they don’t involve adequate energy storage capacity. We must follow the guidelines in this report to ensure it is better utilized.