Is Energy Storage Finally Ready To Tackle the Wind Sector's Biggest Challenge?

Idaho-based KORE Power is one company tapping into the potential for scaling up the global wind industry through energy storage.

Lindsay Gorrill, CEO and director of KORE Power, explains that energy storage can help spur investor interest in wind farms, because it can significantly reduce the amount of time that wind turbines are idled or operating at a lower capacity due to oversupply.

“When you drive by a wind turbine and you see only one (or none) running, it means they are not utilizing the wind. Storage enables you to utilize that large capital you’ve spent,” Gorrill explains.

To be clear, energy storage is just one cog in the many gears of grid management, so there are other considerations in play. Nevertheless, the basic idea is that investment in a wind farm is more attractive when the capital is sunk into equipment that creates energy more of the time.

Estimates vary by a wide amount, but energy storage has the potential to enable wind farms to operate consistently at close to 100 percent capacity. Without energy storage, some wind farms barely operate in the double digits.

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Read the rest of the article: https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2019/energy-storage-finally-ready-tackle-wind-sectors-biggest-challenge/85301

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