Energy storage
In the pursuit of green energy, storage is needed for 2 reasons:
- To smooth out the intermittency of solar and wind power.
- To store energy in electric vehicles.
Note: This page does not include thermal energy storage.
Types / Candidates
| Type | Status |
|---|---|
| Sodium-ion batteries | Good potential / needs investment. |
| Sodium-sulfur batteries | Good potential / needs investment. |
| Hydrogen gas | Okay for some applications, but too lossy & platinum-intensive for others. |
| Lithium ferro phosphate batteries | Okay if used in moderation. A bit too lithium-intensive to be a general solution. |
| Lithium-ion batteries (NMC/NCA type) | Not scalable enough: Too cobalt-intensive. |
| Lithium-sulfur batteries | Can't handle enough charge cycles. |
| Lead-acid batteries | Toxic / hazardous. |
| Stationary storage only (power grid, not vehicles) | |
| Iron redox flow batteries | Good potential / needs investment. |
| Compressed air | ? |
| Pumped hydro | Only viable in rare geographical locations. |
| Flywheels | ? |
| Gravity blocks | Not viable: Outrageously high environmental footprint of construction. |
For more details, read the wikipage of each energy storage type. Links are in the table.
So far, sodium-based batteries seem to have the most hope of being a widespread solution - along with iron-based batteries for stationary energy storage.