Up To 24GW Of Long Duration Storage Needed For 2035 Net Zero Electricity System – Aurora
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Current News.
This the first three paragraphs.
Deploying large quantities of long duration electricity storage (LDES) could reduce system costs and reliance on gas, but greater policy support is needed to enable this, Aurora Energy Research has found.
In a new report, Aurora detailed how up to 24GW of LDES – defined as that with a duration of four hours or above – could be needed to effectively manage the intermittency of renewable generation in line with goals of operating a net zero electricity system by 2035. This is equivalent to eight times the current installed capacity.
Additionally, introducing large quantities of LDES in the UK could reduce system costs by £1.13 billion a year in 2035, cutting household bills by £26 – a hot topic with energy bills on the rise as a result of high wholesale power prices.
The report also says that long duration storage could cut carbon emissions by ten million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
I feel strongly, that this is a target we will achieve, given that there are at least four schemes under development or proposed in Scotland.
- Balliemeanoch – 45 GWh
- Coire Glas – 30 GWh
- Corrievarkie – 14.5 GWh
- Loch Sloy – 14 GWh
- Red John – 2.8 GWh
It certainly looks like the Scots will be OK, especially as there are other sites that could be developed according to SSE and Strathclyde University.
We probably need more interconnectors as I wrote about in New Electricity ‘Superhighways’ Needed To Cope With Surge In Wind Power.
There are also smaller long duration storage systems under development, that will help the situation in the generally flatter lands of England.
One of them; ReEnergise, even managed to sneak their advert into the article.
Their high density hydro could be a good way to store 100 MWh or so in the hills of England. As they could be designed to fit into and under the landscape, I doubt their schemes would cause the controversy of other schemes.
Conclusion
I think we’ll meet the energy storage target by a wide margin.
The Anonymous Widower 
Mid winter cold day needs about 800GWh to 1TWh electrical storage for 24hrs across the UK on a windless dark day. So if Scotland delivers schemes you’ve researched that goes some way but still leaves a hefty gap. More batteries will help but thats a huge build out programme which will need incentives which just get loaded onto the poor old consumer. We need to get back to the CEGB model as they would have had a rational plan and an investment programme to support which consumers would still pay for but im pretty sure it would have been a lot less and wouldn’t have allowed fat cats to earn millions out of this.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | February 22, 2022 |