According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. has 4,605 megawatts (MW) of energy storage battery power capacity by the end of 2021. Power capacity refers to the maximum amount of energy that a battery can release at a given moment.
More than 40% of the battery storage capacity operated in the U.S. in 2020 can perform both grid services and power load transfer applications. About 40% of energy storage is only used for power load transfer, and about 20% is only used for grid services.
The average duration of batteries used for grid services is relatively short (the average duration of a battery is the time it takes for a battery to provide electrical energy under its nameplate power capacity until it is exhausted); Batteries used for power load transfer have a relatively long duration. Batteries that last less than two hours are considered short-lived batteries, and almost all batteries can provide grid services that help maintain the stability of the grid. Batteries that provide grid services discharge in a short period of time, sometimes even for a few seconds or minutes. Deploying short-term energy storage batteries is economical, and most of the battery capacity installed in the late 2010s consisted of short-term energy storage batteries for grid services. But over time, this trend is changing.
Batteries with a duration between 4 and 8 hours are typically cycled once a day to shift power from times of relatively low load to periods of higher load. In an area with relatively high solar power generation capacity, batteries that are recycled every day can store solar power at noon and discharge during peak load hours when solar power generation drops at night.
It is expected that by the end of 2023, the amount of battery storage in the United States will increase by 10 GW, and more than 60% of the battery capacity will be used in conjunction with solar power plants. As of 2020, most battery storage devices installed in solar facilities are used to transfer the power load, with an average duration of more than 4 hours.
Post time: Jul-24-2022
