A new report from Navigant research looks at how energy storage for wind integration has fallen behind other popular renewable energy storage solutions and offers insight into the competitive landscape of wind energy, as well as expected market growth. Despite wind plus storage technology advancing slowly, the pairing of these two technologies together will result in greater reliance on renewable energy, providing an efficient and popular environmental solution.
Wind and energy storage operators should invest in robust software to enable the pairing of these technologies, suggests the report, emphasizing the usage of accurate wind output forecasts and market pricing. Stakeholders in the wind technology industry should explore new revenue streams to address reductions or entire eliminations of subsidies for wind plants, many of which are expected to be phased out by 2020.
In addition, the report suggests that wind farm developers partner with energy storage providers to locate cost-effective sites for potential projects and revenue streams. Energy storage for wind integration has already fallen far behind solar plus storage projects and the report offers methods stakeholders can use to ensure wind technology is part of a renewable-energy based economy.
“The links between wind and energy storage projects remain far less established than storage for solar PV as a result of both technical and economic factors,” says Alex Eller, senior research analyst at Navigant Research. “Although combined wind plus storage projects offer similar benefits and potential, little development has taken place thus far for these combined projects.”
