In celebration of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy’s 30th Anniversary, the Solutions for a Net-Zero Economy interview series promotes the leadership and innovation of clean energy businesses and the membership of BCSE. Featured speakers will showcase the broad range of technologies available to achieve sustainability objectives and a net zero economy.
By Julia Souder, Executive Director, Long Duration Energy Storage Council
The time is now for long duration energy storage (LDES). With large amounts of renewable energy becoming integrated into our communities and providing low-cost energy, long duration energy storage offers a secure, flexible, reliable, and affordable solution that de-risks the energy transition acceleration. We cannot afford to wait for a market to incorporate LDES into our infrastructure, and recent reports from the LDES Council show the potential of LDES to expand to 2 to 8 TW by 2040. This translates to a cumulative investment opportunity of USD 1.7-3.6 trillion. With that, we can see a total cost savings of $540 billion per year with LDES through system-level savings for a net-zero energy system.
The Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council launched in 2021 during COP 26 and has grown into a global non-profit with over 60 members in 20 countries. The LDES Council works to accelerate decarbonization through the acceleration of long duration energy storage implementations worldwide. It provides member-driven, fact-based guidance and research to governments, grid operators, and major electricity users on the deployment of long-duration energy storage for society’s benefit. The LDES Council covers a wide range of LDES technologies, and its members span a diverse spectrum of innovation, including mechanical, thermal, electrochemical, and chemical solutions.
An executive-led organization, the Council includes among its members technology innovators, energy users, and investors. The Council publishes findings and reports to encourage the wide adoption of long duration energy storage to replace the use of fossil fuels and accelerate carbon neutrality.
The LDES Council led discussions at COP 27, continuing to build on our success with partners, to mark our one-year anniversary and highlight that LDES is an essential technology to enable renewable energy to power our grids, provide clean heat, and accelerate carbon neutrality. It enables surplus energy to be stored from wind, solar, and other clean sources to be available when needed. Through LDES we can transition towards renewable energy in an affordable, reliable, and sustainable way. Wind, solar, and other renewables have become the lowest cost forms of generation but need long duration energy storage to match supply with demand.
We appreciate the leadership of groups like the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and congratulate them on 30 years of advocacy for clean energy and the important work BCSE does to bring together organizations to meet net-zero targets. Business leaders, policymakers, and investors have an important role to play in helping unlock the potential of LDES, and together with groups like BCSE, we have an opportunity to expedite the market and drive emissions down with technologies like LDES.