A wide array of different types of energy storage options are available for use in the energy sector and more are emerging as the technology becomes a key component in the energy systems of the future worldwide.

As the need for energy storage in the sector grows, so too does the range of solutions available as the demands become more specific and innovations drawing on state-of-the-art materials and technologies are developed. While the need is not new – people have been looking for ways to store energy that is produced at peak times for use at a later moment to reduce imbalances between energy demand and energy production – energy storage is now booming in the sector. Applications are becoming more diverse and widespread geographically with the growth of variable wind and solar energies, decentralisation of the power system and the need for resilience in the network. With the output of wind and solar dependent on the local weather, variability can occur on short timescales or the times of generation may not correspond to that of the demand. For example, in the case of solar, the maximum output is normally in the middle hours of the day but the biggest demand peak is often […]

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