Zinc energy-storage technologies are cheaper and safer than lithium-ion, according to researchers. California officials are expecting zinc batteries to hold more charge, with some being able to store 25 to 50 hours worth of energy. The shift to zinc from lithium-ion can help the state to attain 100-percent clean energy by 2045, as Forbes details:
“Some of them are looking to provide residential homes the storage they need to ride through these PSPS (public-safety power shut-off) events that California has, or to provide the reliability and resiliency that a home should have, and they're in the size that they would fit in your garage, or they would fit something about the size of your outside air conditioner.”
California recently invested $16.8 million in energy-storage technologies beyond lithium-ion, many of which employ zinc.
“If you look past lithium ion, probably zinc is the next metal that's the most popular for energy storage, and it it does appear to be able to provide performance equal to or better than lithium if given a chance,” Gravely said in a webinar hosted by the Clean Energy States Alliance. “So we have projects where we're doing zinc batteries at the residential level, the commercial level, and the industrial level.”
The state plans to install 2,400 megawatts of energy-storage through 2023, about 90 percent of which are based on lithium-ion technologies. But state officials estimate they will need another 20,000 to 30,000 MW of energy storage by 2045.
Image via Forbes
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It's in the Forbes article that way, so there's an excuse for the subliteracy, but "2400 megawatts" just tells you the maximum load; there's nothing about the capacity of the storage systems -- i.e., how long can the storage systems deliver that load? If the installed battery base can provide 2400 megawatts of power, but can only do so for one hour, that's not going to be very useful when solar and wind production isn't up to the demand. The megawatt-hour capacity of the battery systems is even more important than just the maximum load.
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