FLOW BATTERIES BOOSTING THE ENERGY TRANSITION

Elestor’s Guido Dalessi explains the benefits of HBr flow batteries Electrification, renewable energy sources and innovation are set to help the world on its way to achieving its climate and carbon neutrality targets by the 2050s. However, as yet there is no answer to this question: how can a stable electricity supply be guaranteed with no fossil-fuel baseload? Nowadays, there are rarely times when too little electricity is produced, as is evidenced by negative electricity markets. When the weather conditions favour high renewable energy production at a time of low demand, power plants are switched off and renewable electricity generation is voluntarily curtailed. However, once the world depends more on solar and wind, there will also be periods during which not enough electricity is generated. Consequently, without fossil-fuelled electricity, electricity prices will go extreme. The urgency is not there yet today, but the capacity needs to be built now to bridge these periods of time. So far, electricity price volatility has increased in line with the share of renewable energy in the market. Long-term electricity storage compensates for this and covers the need for base load...