New APS Report: Developing Energy Storage Technologies Among Crucial Steps Toward Increasing Renewable Electricity on Nation’s Grid

November 16, 2010: "Energy Storage

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) should:

* Develop an overall strategy for energy storage in grid-level applications that provides guidance to regulators to recognize the value that energy storage brings to both transmission and generation services on the grid;

Long-Distance Transmission

DOE should:

* Extend the Office of Electricity program on High Temperature Superconductivity for 10 years, with a focus on direct current superconducting cables for long-distance transmission of renewable electricity from source to market;

* Accelerate research and development on wide band gap power electronics for controlling power flow on the grid, including alternating to direct current conversion options and development of semiconductor based circuit breakers operating at 200 kilovolts and 50 kilo amperes.

Business Case

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation should:

* Develop an integrated business case that captures the full value of renewable generation and electricity storage in the context of transmission and distribution; and

* Adopt a uniform integrated business case as their official evaluation and regulatory structure, in concert with the state Public Utility Commissions.


* Conduct a review of the technological potential for a range of battery chemistries, including those it supported during the 1980s and 1990s, with a view toward possible applications to grid energy and storage; and

* Increase its research and development in basic electrochemistry to identify materials and electrochemical mechanisms that have the highest potential use in grid-level energy storage devices."