Storage Will Be Energy’s Next Big Thing
The cost of renewables has been sinking. Harnessing the excess could be huge.
Negative electricity prices are manna for storage operators.
Photographer: Stephanie Sawyer/Getty Images
Think the plummeting costs of solar and wind are transforming the energy landscape? Then you should be betting on ways to warehouse that power.
To understand why, consider: Unlike almost all their rivals in the energy-generation space, solar panels and wind turbines are mass-produced goods. That means they’re subject to the rules of continual improvement and falling costs that we see with semiconductors, household products and clothing as production volumes rise and factories undercut each other. Traditional power plants are essentially large-scale construction projects, which rarely achieve the same sorts of efficiency dividends.