DURHAM, N.C. – Increasing power generators’ ability to store energy from low-carbon sources is essential to making the transition to a low-carbon economy. Yet despite its importance, energy storage has not yet achieved priority status in national policy discussions.

A new policy brief from the Climate Change Policy Partnership (CCPP) at 91 is intended to help fill the information gap and inform decision makers about the critical issue.

“Coupling energy storage technologies with renewable energy, nuclear, or coal-fired power with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) can provide reliable supplies of low-carbon, dispatchable energy,” says Eric Williams, co-director of CCPP says. “With this paper, we hope to bring attention to the vital role of energy storage in a low-carbon economy and offer policy options to move the technology in the right direction.”

Energy storage is a critical – but still insufficiently understood and underfunded – enabling technology for a low-carbon electric power system, Williams explains. It potentially provides a complete solution to the intermittent and nondispatchable nature of wind power and solar generators. It could also serve an important role in a nuclear or CCS-dominated power system by enabling these systems to adapt to variable peak demand. “Energy storage would make it possible to marginally increase nuclear and CCS base-load capacity and store the excess electricity generated at night for use, as needed, during peak hours of the day,” he says.

In the brief, online at www.nicholas.duke.edu/ccpp/publications.html, Williams and co-author Chi-Jen Yang review potential benefits and limitations of existing energy storage technologies, discuss barriers for implementing them, and propose options policymakers can consider for overcoming those obstacles. Key points include:

If the federal government wants to encourage a stable supply of electricity from renewable sources, then the current level of funding for energy-storage research and development is grossly insufficient;

Incentives are needed to encourage private-sector investment in the commercialization of promising technologies;

Pumped hydro-storage has the most proven track record, but it requires an updated assessment to evaluate its full potential;

Compressed air energy storage and rechargeable battery technology hold great potential, but each requires substantial support to realize this potential;

A smart grid that incorporates energy storage would position our nation to face mounting energy challenges.

CCPP is an interdisciplinary research partnership of Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Nicholas School of the Environment and Center on Global Change. CCPP researches carbon-mitigating technology, infrastructure, institutions and systems to inform lawmakers and business leaders as they lay the foundation of a low-carbon economy.