3 ms·

Four hours is sky high. If that's the case, storage is already meaningful.

• epistasis 3y ago
  I would agree that it's meaningful. It will only expand to higher amounts as time goes on, and more chemistries enable longer duration (such as iron air for 100h duration) However all these batteries are driven by economics. The first megawatts are useful for frequency regulation, for which they get reimbursed handsomely, but those batteries are only 15-30 minute duration usually. Once there's lots of cheap solar and wind on the grid, and it's grid that embraces time based reimbursement, that's when the four hour batteries come on. The 100h batteries start to become economical at about that time too. But all time arbitrage depends on having a high enough difference in prices.
  • anovikov 3y ago
    There won't be 100h batteries i believe. Rather, there will be a lot more of 2-3 hour ones. To consume and then output power of lots and lots of solar (which is nearing 10 cent/watt threshold)...
    • epistasis 3y ago
      You may very well be right, but in wind heavy generation markets, intuitively it feels like there's a good potential fit. And startups like Form Energy claim to have done extensive market modeling such that they think their air-iron battery can come in at the right cost. We will see!