Mitsubishi is leading an ambitious project to build what it claims will be the world’s largest energy storage project - a project with four competing technologies (renewable hydrogen, flow batteries, compressed air energy storage and solid oxide fuel cells) and with the equivalent power rating of 1GW.
Whilst lithium-based technology dominates the utility-scale battery market, we are working with a growing number of companies who are developing large projects that store renewable electricity for days rather than hours, using electro-thermal and cryogenic energy storage solutions to name but a few.
In many parts of the US, there are times of day when demand for electricity is lower than the production of renewable power, leading to curtailment and negative pricing. With continued deployment of renewables and the retirement of coal-fired power generation, we need the next step in decarbonization - excess power needs to be stored for later use and many gigawatt-hours of storage capacity is required.
Exciting to see this play out as we help our clients find the best talent in the energy industry to solve the technical and commercial challenges they're facing in an ever-evolving energy storage market!
“In California and other states in the western United States, which will soon have retired all of their coal-fired power generation, we need the next step in decarbonization. Mixing natural gas and storage, and eventually using 100% renewable storage, is that next step,” said Paul Browning, president and CEO of MHPS Americas. “When we add gas turbines powered with renewable hydrogen to a hydrogen storage salt-dome, we have a solution that stores and generates electricity with zero carbon emissions.”
