Has U.S. Found the ‘Holy Grail’ of Energy Storage?

light-bulb-energy-power-electricityA U.S. government agency says it has made a breakthrough in battery technology that could see it leapfrog the likes of Elon Musk and Bill Gates in the multi-billion-dollar race to build the next-generation system of energy storage, reports the World Economic Forum.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) reports it has made major advances in battery developments that could make electric cars and renewable energy cheaper and more accessible.

“While the agency did not release specific details about the technology, it said it could transform the US electrical grid in the next five to 10 years,” the Forum reports.

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The Problem: Renewables’ Intermittent Power Generation

Renewable energy sources are intermittent in nature, depending on when the sun shines and the wind blows. Because of this, suppliers face “ramp up” and “ramp down” issues, writes Thomas R. Burton III of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. in an article published in The National Law Review.

“Energy storage offers a way to harness renewables at their peak supply and deploy them at their peak demand,” he writes.

He cites programs in Massachusetts  and California as examples of how government policy can help accelerate adoption.

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