Chapter 5 – Prospects for Renewable Energy: Meeting the Challenges of Integration with Storage

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on integration issues surrounding solar power since wind integration is covered in several other chapters. A discussion follows on the possible solutions to these issues using energy storage, which is applicable to the integration of both wind and solar resources. Key benefits of energy storage include providing balancing services (e.g., regulation and load following), which enable the widespread integration of renewable energy; supplying power during brief disturbances to reduce outages and the financial losses that accompany them; and serving as substitutes for transmission and distribution upgrades to defer or eliminate them. A smart grid is needed to maximize benefits from load shifting and ancillary services. To maximize these benefits and minimize costs, each energy storage technology needs to be optimized for certain applications. In particular, battery technologies are promising due to their wide range of chemistries and operating conditions for providing services that cover several applications.