Electric Utilities, Energy Storage, and Solar: Trends in Technologies, Applications, and Costs

Electric Utilities, Energy Storage, and Solar: Trends in Technologies, Applications, and Costs

  • Value of electricity energy storage (EES) services
  • Relationship between EES and solar
  • EES technology deployment, costs, and leading applications

Energy Storage as a Complementary Technology to Solar PV

As solar PV prices continue to drop and become one of the fastest growing energy resources in the U.S., interest in affordable, reliable electric energy storage (EES) has grown. The value of solar energy could be enhanced by cost-effective storage for virtually every entity that uses, owns, or manages solar.

EES has the potential to provide services to the grid, utilities, and downstream customers by improving power quality, reliability, and adding needed capacity. EES should enable more solar to be installed on the grid while reducing the operational impacts of this variable resource. Storage, particularly battery storage, is seen as a productive complement to the growth of distributed solar.

What’s in the Report?

This report examines the current state of EES activity, including trends in the types of storage technologies selected for deployment, the leading applications being addressed, the current costs, and the role of solar as a driver of energy storage research and deployment. By understanding the current state of EES broadly, utilities and the solar industry can better prepare for the future where solar and energy storage are combined to increase solar penetration levels.

Electric Utilities, Energy Storage, and Solar: Trends in Technologies, Applications, and Costs

Research report