Guest Bio
Marc Chupka, Vice President of Research and Programs at US Energy Storage Association (ESA), has over 30 years of experience analyzing and advising on the market impacts of both domestic and international energy and environmental policy, including serving as the acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy and International Affairs for the US Department of Energy and chief economist at the White House Office of Environmental Policy. For the past 18 years, Chupka consulted on a broad range of energy issues for utilities, trade associations, and investors as a principal at The Brattle Group, most recently focusing on issues related to grid resilience, clean energy, and climate policy.
In his role with ESA, Chupka leads the organization’s Corporate Responsibility Initiative Task Force, directing to expand ESA’s Technical Advisory Council, shepherd the association’s expanding educational materials, and grow the industry’s data, information, and analytical resources to support ESA’s policy priorities.
Episode summary
Guest Marc Chupka, VP of Research and Programs at US Energy Storage Association, discusses energy storage with host John Sheff. They speak on the growth of this industry over the past few decades, the advantages and technologies associated with it, some current energy storage projects, and its future potential.
Main points
- Battery storage technology has seemed to grown very suddenly recently. That is mostly due to lowered costs and improved performance.
- Lithium ion battery costs have dropped an average of 97% since 1991, with a greater reduction in stationary batteries versus those for electric vehicles.
- In addition to lithium batteries, there are also sodium-, zinc-, or liquid-based batteries, as well as solid state batteries.
- Even within the past decade, most large scale batteries were used for frequency regulation—with future predictions at the time suggesting that cost reductions would lead to more of the same.
- However, that changed a few years ago when costs dropped enough to allow storage to be viable in more applications.
- Some applications include resource adequacy, time-shifting arbitrage, renewable resource integration, transition and distribution assets (especially in microgrids), and power consumption management.
- Along with lower costs, batteries have also been gaining traction in public policies.
- One such policy was issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in order 841, issued in early 2018.
- The gist of the order is that wholesale market operators had to pay for storage for what it could provide, which greatly pushed the importance of energy storage technology.
- While some policies push for storage, many others work to foster an environment where storage investments are more affordable and, therefore, more attractive to adopt.
- One proposed policy is the Stand-alone Storage Investment Tax Credit (ITC) aims to reduce the cost of reduce the cost of energy storage investment.
- Energy storage is closely tied to renewable energy.
- While renewables began life without any association with storage, the path to growing the renewables market requires battery storage.
- A recent study showed that the city of Los Angeles, CA could derive 100% of its energy from renewable sources, but would require battery storage.
- While large-scale use of energy storage has been growing, so has more medium- and small-scale use.
- Microgrids are a very important market for batteries. Microgrids are getting both smaller and bigger, batteries are available in applicable sizes to match.
- Batteries offer a lot through scalability and modularity, but are not the only form of energy storage.
- Pump storage has been around for decades, but have seen a resurgence in recent years.
- Cryogenic storage uses temperature changes to regulate energy.
- Hydrogen cells can be used both as storage and energy sources.
- Hydrogen has seen great success in Europe, but has yet to catch on in the US.
- However, about five years ago, hydrogen has been gaining traction as a way to quickly achieve decarbonization.
- The State of Utah is working to convert an old coal power plant into a hydrogen-based plant. This plant is planned to provide power to the city of Los Angeles, CA.
- The future of energy storage will be a varied one with batteries, hydrogen cells, and more.
- ESA is working towards creating 100 gigawatts of new storage by 2030.
- Solar will likely become even more ubiquitous.
- Residential and commercial customers will look for more storage options, sometimes on a scale of individual buildings and also in microgrids.
- Energy storage has seen a huge surge: 2020 saw more energy storage deployed than the prior seven years before that combined.
Links
Guest Bio
Marc Chupka, Vice President of Research and Programs at US Energy Storage Association (ESA), has over 30 years of experience analyzing and advising on the market impacts of both domestic and international energy and environmental policy, including serving as the acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy and International Affairs for the US Department of Energy and chief economist at the White House Office of Environmental Policy. For the past 18 years, Chupka consulted on a broad range of energy issues for utilities, trade associations, and investors as a principal at The Brattle Group, most recently focusing on issues related to grid resilience, clean energy, and climate policy.
In his role with ESA, Chupka leads the organization’s Corporate Responsibility Initiative Task Force, directing to expand ESA’s Technical Advisory Council, shepherd the association’s expanding educational materials, and grow the industry’s data, information, and analytical resources to support ESA’s policy priorities.
Episode summary
Guest Marc Chupka, VP of Research and Programs at US Energy Storage Association, discusses energy storage with host John Sheff. They speak on the growth of this industry over the past few decades, the advantages and technologies associated with it, some current energy storage projects, and its future potential.
Main points
- Battery storage technology has seemed to grown very suddenly recently. That is mostly due to lowered costs and improved performance.
- Lithium ion battery costs have dropped an average of 97% since 1991, with a greater reduction in stationary batteries versus those for electric vehicles.
- In addition to lithium batteries, there are also sodium-, zinc-, or liquid-based batteries, as well as solid state batteries.
- Even within the past decade, most large scale batteries were used for frequency regulation—with future predictions at the time suggesting that cost reductions would lead to more of the same.
- However, that changed a few years ago when costs dropped enough to allow storage to be viable in more applications.
- Some applications include resource adequacy, time-shifting arbitrage, renewable resource integration, transition and distribution assets (especially in microgrids), and power consumption management.
- Along with lower costs, batteries have also been gaining traction in public policies.
- One such policy was issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in order 841, issued in early 2018.
- The gist of the order is that wholesale market operators had to pay for storage for what it could provide, which greatly pushed the importance of energy storage technology.
- While some policies push for storage, many others work to foster an environment where storage investments are more affordable and, therefore, more attractive to adopt.
- One proposed policy is the Stand-alone Storage Investment Tax Credit (ITC) aims to reduce the cost of reduce the cost of energy storage investment.
- Energy storage is closely tied to renewable energy.
- While renewables began life without any association with storage, the path to growing the renewables market requires battery storage.
- A recent study showed that the city of Los Angeles, CA could derive 100% of its energy from renewable sources, but would require battery storage.
- While large-scale use of energy storage has been growing, so has more medium- and small-scale use.
- Microgrids are a very important market for batteries. Microgrids are getting both smaller and bigger, batteries are available in applicable sizes to match.
- Batteries offer a lot through scalability and modularity, but are not the only form of energy storage.
- Pump storage has been around for decades, but have seen a resurgence in recent years.
- Cryogenic storage uses temperature changes to regulate energy.
- Hydrogen cells can be used both as storage and energy sources.
- Hydrogen has seen great success in Europe, but has yet to catch on in the US.
- However, about five years ago, hydrogen has been gaining traction as a way to quickly achieve decarbonization.
- The State of Utah is working to convert an old coal power plant into a hydrogen-based plant. This plant is planned to provide power to the city of Los Angeles, CA.
- The future of energy storage will be a varied one with batteries, hydrogen cells, and more.
- ESA is working towards creating 100 gigawatts of new storage by 2030.
- Solar will likely become even more ubiquitous.
- Residential and commercial customers will look for more storage options, sometimes on a scale of individual buildings and also in microgrids.
- Energy storage has seen a huge surge: 2020 saw more energy storage deployed than the prior seven years before that combined.
Links
Learn more about ESA: https://energystorage.org/
Recent study on lithium ion batteries: https://news.mit.edu/2021/lithium-ion-battery-costs-0323
Read about FERC order 841: https://www.ferc.gov/media/order-no-841
Read about how FERC has opened wholesale markets, allowing more competition: https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/ferc-opens-wholesale-markets-distributed-resources-landmark-action-breaks-down
Get more details on the Stand-alone Storage Investment Tax Credit: http://energystorage.org/policies-issues/federal/itc/
Learn how Los Angeles can get use renewable energy: https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/los-angeles-100-percent-renewable-study.html
Listen to episode 19 for more information on hydrogen-based energy: https://soundcloud.com/danfoss_us/ep-19-hydrogen-energy-in-europe
Find out how Utah will convert an old coal power plant into a hydrogen plant: https://www.ipautah.com/ipp-renewed
Listen to the full podcast on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/danfoss_us/episode-21-energy-storage-landscape-in-north-america
Listen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyY4ExYANf8
For more information and additional episodes of the EnVisioneering Exchange podcast, visit https://www.danfoss.com/en-us/about-danfoss/insights-for-tomorrow/envisioneering-exchange/
