(97d) Status and Challenges to Implement Large-Scale Energy Storage Into the Grid

Growing world energy consumption, environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuels and the resource constraints have spurred great interests in renewable energy from wind and solar. To effectively dispatch renewable energy into the national grid requires electrical energy storage (EES). EES is also useful to improve reliability, stability and efficiency of a future grid that is expected to be able to provide the electrical requirements to plug-in hybrid vehicles. Among the most promising ones are electrochemical storage technologies or batteries that are capable of storing and releasing electrical energy in accordance with demand. While a number of technologies have been developed or even demonstrated, there remain significant challenges in performance and cost for broad market penetration. As such PNNL has carried out wide research into advanced materials and EES technologies. This paper will report the efforts and discuss the needs, status and remaining challenges to implement large scale ESS.