7 BETTING ON HYDROGEN: JAPAN’S GREEN INDUSTRIAL POLICY …
169
The solution, all seem to agree, is energy storage. The ability to
store energy would allow utilities to even out their daily, weekly, and
seasonal fluctuations, and would remove a major objection to the wider
use of renewables. The problem, however, is that all our current storage
technologies have limitations in terms of cost, efficiency, or scale.
The storage approach most widely used today is “pumped hydro”
in which water is pumped to an elevated position and then released
when needed to run electricity-generating turbines. Especially when utilities create surplus electricity, this method can be very efficient. Pumped
hydro today accounts for 95–99% of all electricity storage currently in
use, and some countries with suitable geography have placed high hopes
on the technology (Williams 2017). 24 Critics, however, point to some
major limitations in this approach. At the moment, the amount of storage
currently available is tiny compared to the massive amount of storage
that will eventually be needed. Not all areas have access to the geography
needed to make this work, and facilities are often far away from where the
electricity will be used. Also, many of these projects may do considerable
damage to the environment (Brouwer 2017).
Other technologies have been used on a smaller scale. One is
compressed air energy storage (CAES) in which electricity is used to
compress air, which is then stored, reheated, and used to power turbines.
Only two large CAES plants are currently in operation, in part because
of relative low efficiency rates (40–70%). Other solutions such as superconducting magnetic energy storage, super-capacitors, and flywheels are
all capable of providing instant power, but are either expensive or are
not able to store enough energy for long enough (Lazarou and Makridis
2017, p. 2; METI 2017). 25
Currently, a lot of attention is being paid to batteries as a storage
medium, especially to help utilities deal with short-term or daily fluctuations. Tesla has made the biggest splash, installing large-scale battery units
in Australia and Southern California in 2017. However, critics argue that
batteries are large and expensive, and most importantly cannot hold their
charge for long enough. As one analyst puts it, “lithium ion batteries, to
be quite honest, are probably going to be good for 4–6 hours of grid
storage and up to a couple hundred megawatts in scale. When you get
beyond that, the challenges of lithium ion scalability become apparent.” 26
As shown in Fig. 7.2, the main storage technologies have limitations in
terms of scale or length of storage. Analysts thus realize that the full adoption of renewable sources increases the need for “weeks- and months-long
169
The solution, all seem to agree, is energy storage. The ability to
store energy would allow utilities to even out their daily, weekly, and
seasonal fluctuations, and would remove a major objection to the wider
use of renewables. The problem, however, is that all our current storage
technologies have limitations in terms of cost, efficiency, or scale.
The storage approach most widely used today is “pumped hydro”
in which water is pumped to an elevated position and then released
when needed to run electricity-generating turbines. Especially when utilities create surplus electricity, this method can be very efficient. Pumped
hydro today accounts for 95–99% of all electricity storage currently in
use, and some countries with suitable geography have placed high hopes
on the technology (Williams 2017). 24 Critics, however, point to some
major limitations in this approach. At the moment, the amount of storage
currently available is tiny compared to the massive amount of storage
that will eventually be needed. Not all areas have access to the geography
needed to make this work, and facilities are often far away from where the
electricity will be used. Also, many of these projects may do considerable
damage to the environment (Brouwer 2017).
Other technologies have been used on a smaller scale. One is
compressed air energy storage (CAES) in which electricity is used to
compress air, which is then stored, reheated, and used to power turbines.
Only two large CAES plants are currently in operation, in part because
of relative low efficiency rates (40–70%). Other solutions such as superconducting magnetic energy storage, super-capacitors, and flywheels are
all capable of providing instant power, but are either expensive or are
not able to store enough energy for long enough (Lazarou and Makridis
2017, p. 2; METI 2017). 25
Currently, a lot of attention is being paid to batteries as a storage
medium, especially to help utilities deal with short-term or daily fluctuations. Tesla has made the biggest splash, installing large-scale battery units
in Australia and Southern California in 2017. However, critics argue that
batteries are large and expensive, and most importantly cannot hold their
charge for long enough. As one analyst puts it, “lithium ion batteries, to
be quite honest, are probably going to be good for 4–6 hours of grid
storage and up to a couple hundred megawatts in scale. When you get
beyond that, the challenges of lithium ion scalability become apparent.” 26
As shown in Fig. 7.2, the main storage technologies have limitations in
terms of scale or length of storage. Analysts thus realize that the full adoption of renewable sources increases the need for “weeks- and months-long