“We are changing the way that utilities and grid operators think about the grid - building towards 35 gigawatts by 2025 and beyond."
This was the tone at the Energy Storage Association’s 27th Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, Colorado as described by AES Energy Storage co-founder and President, John Zahurancik during his keynote presentation on technology accelerating markets. The event saw energy storage organizations and industry leaders come together to “set a path forward for continued growth and acceleration of energy storage markets, policy, and technology.” The week was full of discussions, speeches, and exhibiting (you may have met some of our team at the charging lounge!).
AES Energy Storage has recently been working with San Diego Gas & Electric to develop multiple projects to boost energy storage in California, including a 30 MW Advancion energy storage facility in Escondido, which is currently the largest lithium-ion battery-based energy storage installation in the world. Energy storage is scaling rapidly in both size and duration, as utilities turn to battery-based systems to solve significant problems in a new way. In his speech, John describes that, along with these changes, are three key trends that we’ve observed:
- The move to electrify everything. Electricity is cheaper, cleaner, and more effective than other forms of energy for almost any industry.
- The acceleration of renewables. Renewable energy has expanded rapidly on its own, but is being pushed even further with energy storage.
- The transformation of the grid with energy storage, a true alternative to traditional energy infrastructure investments.
These trends are converging to form a new energy network. In John’s words: “This is going to become the fabric of how we think about power systems into the future.” John explains in his speech how, as we shared in our recent white paper with IHS Markit, storage is a vital component of any network, and this need is becoming more and more apparent in the electricity network as the pace of renewable and distributed generation deployments accelerates.
As for the “next wave,” this refers to the movement to spread energy storage to energy markets worldwide, working towards more than 35 GW. “Every year this conference gets bigger, this topic appears in more and more places, and it’s starting to make its way into policy statements at the highest levels of government in all places of the world,” says John.
To hear more about what we’ve learned from deploying energy storage in southern California and our view on the next phase of the energy network, catch John’s keynote speech in its entirety below, and be sure to visit our YouTube channel to learn more about Advancion.
Download our whitepaper to see how energy storage will elevate the grid.
