Why Battery Technology Still Has Some Work To Do
The battery storage facilities we have now definitely need to be improved.
According to research by a Stanford team, the best batteries we have today only store a maximum of ten times the amount of energy used to manufacture them. In comparison, pumped hydro can store some 210 times, and Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) leads with 240 times.
However, there are only two CAES projects in Germany and Alabama, with two more on the way. There are very few CAES projects because of landscape limitations, as CAES systems require a huge storage area, like a cavern or an aquifer. Pumped hydro also requires a storage facility at greater height, like a hill.
In contrast, batteries are easily deployed and installed. If batteries are the way to go, then battery research should focus on extending the life cycles of batteries by a factor of at least 3 to 10 times to make each storage facility more cost-effective.
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