Sunday, May 8, 2016

Energy Storage Innovation

With the emergence of electric cars, much attention is being focused on battery innovation. And yet there are many other innovative energy storage technologies which have better performance than batteries, especially at small to medium (microgrid) scale and at large grid scale. Here are some of those, at various levels of innovation and commercialization.

Gravity Energy Storage

Pumped hydro, a long established energy storage technology
Gravity Power
Advanced Rail Energy Storage (ARES), "Gravity Train"

Compressed Air Energy Storage

LightSail
Underwater Compressed Air

Closed Cycle Heat engines

Isentropic, hot rocks
TerraJoule, hot water