Energy Storage, Batteries, and Solid Electrolytes: Prospects and Problems

Abstract

Historically, storing energy has generally been accomplished by containment of raw fuel. This has been satisfactory for the transportation sector since the fuel, petroleum, is portable and readily converted into the desired result — motion. In the electric utility industry, the necessity to supply energy on demand (which fluctuates seasonally, weekly, and daily) has been successfully accomplished by using different classes of generating equipment; namely, capital intensive base-loaded units using nuclear or coal fuel, older and smaller intermediate cycling plants fired by coal or petroleum, and relatively inexpensive peaking units fired by oil or gas. Recently, however, the high cost and limited reserves of petroleum are forcing a reconsideration of these approaches. With energy storage it would be possible to mitigate these concerns by indirectly using coal or nuclear energy to supply peaking and motive power which are the major uses of petroleum. In the longer term when petroleum-derived energy must be replaced by that derived from coal, fusion, nuclear, and/or solar, new chemical fuels must be produced and/or electrical energy must be stored for applications where direct use of these new energy sources is not possible.