Why cheap natural gas is thwarting the battery and energy storage revolution - battery energy storage system

One of the main energy stories of 2015 is so-
Earlier this year, Tesla Motors announced the launch of a home battery product, a business called "energy storage" that suddenly attracted public attention.
Whether it's through batteries or other technologies, storage is often referred to as a game changer --
If you can save energy and use it later, then you can also use solar energy at night, wind energy when there is no wind, etc. [
Driven by innovators such as Tesla, the energy storage business is growing rapidly
However, if the new research is correct, the installation of energy storage devices in the United States, especially in terms of the size of the grid, may already be far beyond a major countervailing economic factor.
The problem is that, in many cases, the competition between energy storage and natural gas is quite direct, and the price of natural gas has been quite low in recent years.
Although more storage will be an ideal option in the long run, especially from an environmental point of view, this has been hindering storage adoption.
This is the result of a new study just taken by Eric Hittinger of Rochester Institute of Technology and Roger Lueken of Brattle Group on energy policy.
"The energy storage industry has faced an unfortunate trend since 2008: As new storage technologies prepare for the market, more and more technologies reduce costs, the reduction in natural gas costs reduces the potential revenue from energy storage, "the authors conclude.
In fact, if you take the logic one step further, it means
The "fracking" revolution provides us with abundant and reasonably priced natural gas, but it could defeat a very different revolution --
In terms of energy storage
"Fracking technology produces cheap natural gas, which really hinders the storage industry and really sets it back a few years," Hittinger said . ".
There is no doubt that the price of natural gas has dropped significantly.
According to US media reportsS.
Energy Information Administration, monthly price of natural gas-
Electricity prices in India have fallen sharply since the $12 peak.
$41 to $6 per thousand cubic feet along the way.
By the end of the year it was 90.
Since then, prices have often been less than $5 per thousand cubic feet.
Very cheap-
Hittinger said that the low price of natural gas has a greater impact on natural gas power generation than other forms of electricity.
"If you look at the cost of natural gas and electricity, more than half of the cost comes directly from fuel," he said . ".
"The capital cost of the factory is quite cheap, and the fuel cost is important.
"But why is natural gas so directly competing with energy storage in the context of a complex electricity market?
This may sound surprising, but research has found that there are at least two ways in which they are competing.
One of them is "frequency regulation "--
In this case, a small amount of power is entered into the grid in a secondby-
The second basis to help bridge the gap between supply and demand --
The other is arbitrage ".
"This refers to the ability to store energy when it is cheap, and then release energy when it is expensive, because the demand is higher --
For example, later in the day.
Both of these are potentially profitable storage applications, but as research has shown, these two roles can actually be done by gas plants as well, as they need to be launched quickly when needed.
"Because it burns in the turbine, it's like a jet engine," Hittinger said . ".
"So like a jet engine, you can turn it on and off and tilt it up and down quickly.
The study considered some power grids.
Massive Storage technology beyond large batteries
Includes the flywheel stored in the rotating rotor energy and especially helpful in frequency regulation, as well as pump water, pump water uphill behind the dam, so that itsenergy can later be as needed
The latter is the most common form of storage currently used on the Internet, which is particularly convenient for energy arbitrage.
Again and again, the study found that storage systems were less valuable when gas was cheaper, and their operators were less profitable.
For example, when demand peaks in the afternoon and evening, it doesn't make much sense to have a large battery on the grid to release power, if it's relatively cheap to start only one gas plant at that time.
Of course, this does not mean that the storage industry is over --far from it.
Although it is still small, it actually has a very good year.
Hittinger believes that this is partly because energy storage companies like Tesla are looking for other storage products and other ways of using them, such as in individual homes, businesses and commercial buildings.
California is now asking its utilities to add a lot of storage to the grid by 2020, which doesn't hurt.
As a result, natural gas storage is not doomed, but there seems to be a major setback in the price of natural gas.
"The paper will be that if gas prices remain at the 2007 level, there will now be more energy storage," Hittinger said . ".
"So the energy storage industry has been hit to some extent and they are recovering well from it, but if that doesn't happen, they may be doing better. ”