Energy Storage and Smart Energy Systems

TLDR

The transition to renewable energy requires substantial electricity storage, yet optimal solutions must be identified through a holistic, cross‑sector view of the entire energy system. This paper applies an integrated cross‑sector approach to identify the most efficient and least‑cost storage options for the whole renewable energy system, concluding that focusing on individual sub‑sectors is insufficient. The findings show that integrating the electricity sector with other parts of the system yields more efficient and cheaper storage solutions, rendering electricity storage suboptimal for large fluctuating renewable inflows, though it remains useful for other future purposes.

Abstract

It is often highlighted how the transition to renewable energy supply calls for significant electricity storage. However, one has to move beyond the electricity-only focus and take a holistic energy system view to identify optimal solutions for integrating renewable energy. In this paper, an integrated cross-sector approach is used to determine the most efficient and least-cost storage options for the entire renewable energy system concluding that the best storage solutions cannot be found through analyses focusing on the individual sub-sectors. Electricity storage is not the optimum solution to integrate large inflows of fluctuating renewable energy, since more efficient and cheaper options can be found by integrating the electricity sector with other parts of the energy system and by this creating a Smart Energy System. Nevertheless, this does not imply that electricity storage should be disregarded but that it will be needed for other purposes in the future.