Wind and Solar Constraints Guide Energy Storage Opportunities

Clean energy transitions in many jurisdictions involve dramatic increases in shares of variable wind and solar power in their electricity grids, supplemented by clean firm power to provide reliability. To plan a resilient, clean energy future, we will need to account for natural resource constraints as we develop and deploy new technologies. To address this aim, I blend perspectives from earth science, energy system modeling, and materials chemistry. 

I will discuss my work that incorporates multi-decadal wind and solar weather data into energy system models, showing that it is critical to incorporate this variability for evaluating seasonal and interannual benefits of energy storage. Long-duration energy storage can make reliable wind-solar-battery electricity systems more affordable. Geologic hydrogen storage is a promising example of this. In additional work, I find that half of the active natural gas storage sites in the U.S. could beneficially be repurposed for national-scale geologic hydrogen storage. This work also guided electrolyzer and fuel cell development, finding that innovation in capital cost is more valuable than efficiency innovation for seasonal energy storage applications.

Building on this body of work, future research will analyze other natural resource constraints of net-zero emissions energy systems, guide high-value technology innovation for specific end-uses, and identify opportunities and consequences of repurposing fossil infrastructure for decarbonization solutions.

Speaker: Jacqueline Dowling, Stanford University