PUBLISHED: 11 JANUARY 2016 | ARTICLE NUMBER: 15003 | DOI: 10.1038/NENERGY.2015.

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A balancing act for renewables

David Elliott
Energy storage will play a key role in increasing the use of variable energy sources. Nonetheless, storage
is not the only balancing option and the overall design of power systems will incorporate a range of
flexible generation, storage and grid-balancing options of different types and scales.

S
ome renewable energy sources, such option offered by gas turbines is a better bet Agora’s view drew criticism from
as wind and solar, are intermittent than storing electricity produced by wind or dena, the German Energy Agency, among
and so, it is claimed, require energy solar irradiation. others. dena’s CEO said3 “electricity storage
storage systems acting as reservoirs to allow facilities are essential for the energy
constant and on-demand delivery of power. The relative merits of storing electricity turnaround. Anyone who alleges otherwise
Contrary to the case of fossil fuels, where The debate over the value of electricity is damaging the energy turnaround and,
the actual energy source can be stored prior storage has come to a head in Germany in the end, is risking the supply security
to electricity generation, wind or solar following a report from Agora in Germany.”
radiation cannot be stored; what needs to Energiewende, a leading energy think Certainly large-scale pumped hydro
be stored in the case of renewables is the tank2. Their report did not dismiss smaller storage is often seen as a key way forward
generated electricity itself. domestic-scale batteries used with solar for balancing variable renewables, along
Several types of storage system are photovoltaics (PVs), where customer-sited with emerging ideas like compressed
already in wide use for conventionally storage could have a relieving effect on the air energy storage in large underground
generated electricity and can also be used distribution network when used in a grid- caverns (http://go.nature.com/KuAtD3) and
for balancing the variable output from supporting manner. However, it claimed offshore lagoon pumped-storage systems
renewable sources. For example, on the that given the availability of cheap gas plants (http://go.nature.com/xb8tGU). All of
large utility-power scale, pumped hydro and other grid-balancing measures, post- these options are of course geographically
systems use surplus grid electricity to generation large-scale energy storage may constrained. That is not the case for
pump water uphill into a hydro reservoir, not be cost effective in Germany in helping liquid air storage (wherein cryogenic
so that it can be run out later through the the transition to a higher renewables grid fluid is kept in insulated tanks ready for
hydro turbines to generate power when penetration until a penetration level as revapourizing to run turbines; http://
needed. At the smaller scale, batteries high as 90% is achieved, as may happen by go.nature.com/93eiuO) or another new
store electricity more directly, and are mid-century. development, flow batteries (using mixed
suited to use, for example, for home power.
There are also many other options at
various scales1.
Generally, energy storage systems are
pricey because they only deliver energy
for part of the time — so their capital cost
per kWh output is high. They are thus
economically viable only when there is no
alternative energy source, for example, in the
case of small portable batteries for torches
or radios. For larger-scale energy supply,
storage is usually only practical if the cost of
the input energy is very low and/or the price
that can be charged for the energy output
is high.
In the context of renewable sources, that
would be the case when energy demand is
high and no other sources are available. In
practice however, alternative sources — such
as natural gas — are often available and low
cost. Thus, we might conclude that storage of
electricity from renewables cannot compete
with cheap gas turbines, which already exist
on the grid and which can be run to meet
ALEX WING

demand, when renewable inputs are low,

using easily stored gas. Indeed, at present
some argue that the flexible grid-balancing

NATURE ENERGY | VOL 1 | JANUARY 2016 | www.nature.com/natureenergy 1

© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

comment
binary chemicals4), both of which can be
sited near power plants.
On the smaller scale, domestic
battery storage is beginning to make
inroads for short-term balancing of the
output from rooftop PVs. Such systems
are still quite expensive. Whereas the
breakthrough cost at which batteries are
likely to be attractive to consumers can
be put at around US$200 per kWh, the
10 kWh Tesla Powerwall home battery
unit is retailing at US$3,500 in the USA
(http://go.nature.com/1cmHVw), and
that excludes installation costs and the
cost of an electrical d.c. to a.c. inverter
to link it into the domestic mains supply,
adding perhaps a further US$500 to the
total cost. Moreover, although a 10 kW
Tesla-type battery unit may be able to store
enough energy gathered using rooftop
PV arrays during the day to run basic
household electrics overnight, depending
on the climate conditions the combined
system may not be able to supply energy
for longer periods, such as during winter
when PV performance may be very poor.
At that point, one would have to resort to
importing energy from the grid.
With costs falling, some nevertheless
see rooftop PV combined with battery
storage as allowing consumers to go 100%
off-grid and be free from reliance on
power utilities5. However, except in very
isolated areas, this so-called ‘grid defection’
would not make much economic sense
for consumers. Most domestic PV users
in industrialized countries are already
grid linked, which allows them to offset
the cost of self-generated electricity by
exporting any surplus PV electricity to the
grid and to top-up from it when they have
a shortfall. That is the basis of most ‘net
metering’ and feed-in tariff schemes. If they
went completely off-grid they would lose
this option.
It could be that, if home-scale storage
did spread, domestic users who were grid
linked could be rewarded for running what
would become a network of distributed
storage, as it would reduce peak demand
on the overall system. There would
certainly be advantages for those who
run the system, including reduced grid
transmission losses and grid upgrade/
management costs6. However, some energy
utilities may worry that domestic stores
would be used by consumers to stock
cheap utility electricity during off-peak
periods for sale back to them at higher
prices during peak demand periods. There
have already been disputes over this,
for example in Spain, where a new tax
has been imposed on consumers using
solar storage7.
2 NATURE ENERGY | VOL 1 | JANUARY 2016 | www.nature.com/natureenergy
A heated option
Storing electricity is not the only option.
Storing heat is much cheaper, and for many
people heat is a large fraction of their energy
use. Individual domestic consumers can
feed excess electricity from their rooftop
PV array to their hot water boiler heat-store
using an immersion heater (for example, see
https://www.immersun.co.uk). This means
they can use less gas for heating. However,
direct solar water-heating might actually
be a cheaper option than this, so it may be
more economically attractive to run the two
in parallel, heating water directly using solar
and exporting any excess PV electricity back
to the grid.
There is also the question of scale. Small-
scale heat storage is usually much more
expensive per kWh than large-scale storage,
in which lower surface-to-volume ratios
lead to lower heat losses. Large stores can
also balance out the variations in energy
use across large numbers of households:
there are economies of scale, so consumers
benefit. There are many community-scale
heat-store systems linked to district heating
networks in Denmark and elsewhere, fed
increasingly by solar heat 8. Some capture
summer heat for use in winter. A similar
interseasonal solar-fed heat-store system
is used for a housing complex in Canada
(http://www.dlsc.ca). Solar heat is not the
only option: excess electricity from wind
farms can also be stored using immersion
heaters in the heat stores9.
Full-scale district heating (DH) networks
are already common in urban areas,
sometimes supplied with heat from high-
efficiency combined heat and power (CHP)
plants using fossil fuel or, increasingly,
biomass, such as straw or wood pellets. If
coupled with a heat store, a CHP/DH system
can be used very flexibly for grid balancing.
If there is too much wind generation and
low demand, the CHP unit can switch to
producing heat for storage. If wind is low
and demand for electricity high, the power
output from the CHP plant can be ramped
up and heat supplied, if needed, from
the store.
There are also other ways in which the
variable output from wind and solar can be
dealt with, such as the so-called power-to-
gas idea. Surplus wind- or solar-generated
electricity is converted to hydrogen gas by
electrolysis of water and the hydrogen is
then stored for later use, to generate power
in a gas turbine or a fuel cell, when wind
or solar energy is less available. In some of
the ‘wind-to-gas’ variants now being tested
in Germany, the hydrogen is converted to
methane gas using carbon dioxide captured
from the air or from a power plant exhaust
(http://go.nature.com/bBQCh2). In some
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
versions of this approach, the resultant
non-fossil synthetic methane is injected
into the gas main or converted into vehicle
fuel. In the latter case, when it is burnt,
carbon capture is not possible. However,
if it is burnt in a power plant with carbon
capture and storage, the overall process
can in effect be carbon negative. Even
without that extension, the power-to-gas
system offers an interesting new storage
and balancing option, cutting across the
pre/post-generation storage distinction
and turning a problem (the variability of
wind and solar) into a solution, by using
the surplus outputs to make a storable
balancing fuel10,11.
Beyond storage
Although there are a range of storage
systems at various scales, there are many
other possible options for grid balancing
that do not involve storage, whether of
electricity, heat or gas. They include smart-
grid demand management and supergrid
electricity imports and exports. Demand
management involves delaying usage peaks
by shifting demand in time. Some energy-
using devices can coast for a while with
no power input, for example domestic
and commercial freezer units. Given the
agreement of users (and perhaps lowered
electricity supply prices) such units can be
run via a smart-grid system that decouples
them when demand is high and/or wind
and solar input is low. A similar effect can
be achieved by variable power pricing, if
consumers can be warned of imminent
higher costs. By delaying peaks, demand
management has significant potential for
balancing grids by shifting demand to when
renewable supply is more available, thus
reducing the need for wasteful curtailment
of surpluses and for back-up to meet lulls in
wind or solar availability.
On the much larger scale, supergrid
networks (for example, across the EU)
could import electricity over long distances
to meet local shortfalls, and balance that
with exports later when there is a local
excess: rather than shifting demand peaks
in time, excess energy is shifted spatially to
meet demand elsewhere. The availability of
renewables often varies with location, and
supergrid links offer a way to balance local
energy needs and availabilities across large
areas. Of course, availability will influence
energy transaction prices, but some
countries with potentially large net surpluses
will benefit.
A study in 2012 suggested that, although
storage could play an important role,
smart grids and supergrids could in theory
each reduce the need for storage by up
to 50%12. Interest in the supergrid idea

remains strong, with, for example, new
interconnectors planned between the UK
and continental Europe13. Nonetheless, a
study comparing energy storage options
and grid interconnections as balancing
mechanisms for a 100% renewable UK
electricity grid, found that although all
options may be needed, bulk-storing
hydrogen in underground caverns was the
cheapest option14.
In terms of the overall system, the jury
is still out on which is the best way forward.
Although some outlines have emerged
indicating how balancing for near-100%
renewables could be achieved in the UK,
backed up by storage, flexible generation,
demand management and imports, other
studies stress the continuing need for
flexible generation using fossil fuel15–17.
Most likely there will be a need for a mix of
all these options, with other, less variable,
renewables also playing a role. A recent
study18 concluded that although the best
balance is as yet unclear, “for more than
an 80% renewable generation share to be
economically feasible, large-scale storage,
significantly more power imports, or
domestic dispatchable renewables like tidal
range must be available.”
On balance
Although electricity storage clearly has its
place, it is only one possible option: there
is an on-going need for comprehensive,
holistic exploration of system-wide options
NATURE ENERGY | VOL 1 | JANUARY 2016 | www.nature.com/natureenergy 3
for grid balancing. As pointed out in a
recent study, it is not helpful just to look at
individual balancing options in isolation19.
Similar points were made in a study of
optimal approaches to managing high
renewable energy mixes in the USA, also
stressing the need to select generation
options appropriately, with, where possible,
output profiles that complemented
each other 20.
What emerges from recent studies
is that, in terms of both generation and
grid balancing, there are benefits from
having a mixed system with a range of
types, locations and scales of technology:
some renewable sources are less variable
than others and there can be significant
economies of scale for both generation
and storage. Local projects, including
domestic grid-linked PV with storage, can
play an important role, but in terms of
reliable, cost-effective generation and grid
balancing, inputs from remote large wind,
wave and tidal projects will also be needed,
backed up by large storage systems and
other balancing measures, including smart
grids and supergrids. Electricity storage,
although important, will only be part of the
overall balancing system. As IRENA put it 21,
“energy storage is only one of many options
to increase system flexibility’’.
David Elliott is at the Open University,
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK.
e-mail: d.a.elliott@open.ac.uk
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
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