Developing pathways for energy storage in the UK using a coevolutionary framework

Abstract

A number of recent techno-economic studies have shown that energy storage could offer significant benefits to a low-carbon UK energy system as it faces increased challenges in matching supply and demand. However, the majority of this work has not investigated the real-world issues affecting the widespread deployment of storage. This paper is designed to address this gap by drawing on the systems innovation and socio-technical transitions literature to identify some of the most important contextual factors which are likely to influence storage deployment. Specifically it uses a coevolutionary framework to examine how changes in ecosystems, user practices, business strategies, institutions and technologies are creating a new selection environment and potentially opening up the energy system to new variations of storage for both electricity and heat. The analysis shows how these different dimensions of the energy regime can coevolve in mutually reinforcing ways to create alternative pathways for the energy system which in turn have different flexibility requirements and imply different roles for storage technologies. Using this framework three pathways are developed -user led, decentralised and centralised -which illustrate potential longterm trajectories for energy storage technologies in a low-carbon energy system.

A socio-technical perspective on low carbon investment challenges – Insights for UK energy policy

“…For example there may be certain strategic investments which help future proof the system for the post 2030 phase and create synergies across the transport, heat and electricity sectors. Taylor et al (2013) argue that energy storage technologies fit into this category as they can help to manage a highly distributed and intermittent low carbon energy system, while Hawkey et al (2013) argue for more emphasis on local scale infrastructure investments centred on the efficient provision of low carbon heat. However under current market structures the revenue streams to investors in these technologies which promote flexibility and efficiency are highly uncertain as their benefits are not specific to one particular segment of the market but diffused across the entire system, and are therefore more difficult to account for under current market arrangements (Bolton and Foxon, 2011, 2013bTaylor et al, 2013).…”

Solar Electrical Energy Storage

“…In the demand side, TES is largely distributed and mostly at an individual building scale for domestic heating or cooling. For example, almost 14 million households in the United Kingdom have a hot water cylinder, giving a maximum combined storage capacity of around 80 GWh (Taylor et al, 2013). However, only recently has it been recognized that TES can also be an effective means of electricity management at the supply side.…”

“…In the United Kingdom, the current end user demand on electricity accounts for around 18%. Under the Carbon Plan scenarios, this share will increase to 25-31% by 2030 and 33-44% by 2050 (Taylor et al, 2013). Globally, the net electricity generation will increase by 93% in the IEO2013 reference case, from 20.2 trillion kWh in 2010 to 39.0 trillion kWh in 2040 (EIA, 2013).…”

Economic analysis of a hybrid energy storage system based on liquid air and compressed air

“…One of these is flexible generation. Backup fossil fuel generators, such as gas turbines, are proven technologies and as such are currently used to balance electricity supply with demand, but they have several issues: they emit CO 2 and CCS may affect flexibility; they will suffer low future load factors if only used occasionally; and they are subject to fuel price risk which may impact upon economics [1].…”