Ramesh Koripella, a Materials Scientist in the Sandia Energy Storage program, spoke at the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) 2024 Members Meeting on June 4, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Koripella’s presentation titled “Non-Lithium Energy Storage Demonstration Projects in California” was a part of the Non-Lithium and Longer-Duration Technologies breakout session.
Ramesh discussed the percent of renewables, energy storage, and the mix of various power generation sources in California. With a growing number of renewables on the grid, there is an increased need for energy storage and suitable long duration energy storage technologies such as flow batteries, metal air batteries, mechanical and thermal storage technologies. The state of California is addressing these needs through California Energy Commission (CEC)-funded demonstration projects with Zn-Br, Fe flow, vanadium redox flow, Fe-air, and Zn-air batteries.
CESA is a nonprofit organization promoting clean energy transition in states and its members include various state utilities and regulatory authorities. Many of these members may not necessarily be familiar with new long duration energy storage technologies and what the CEC is doing in this space. So this presentation offered the opportunity to follow CEC’s lead and incorporate long duration into their electric grid planning.
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity (OE), Energy Storage Division.