Battery projects surge again in 2024

2024 is another good year for a source of electricity that’s better for your lungs and better for climate change, and that might be coming to your home when you turn on a light or turn up your thermostat: a big battery bank.

This ability to store large amounts of electricity in batteries was essentially nonexistent a decade ago, but as of the end of November, the country had about 24 gigawatt-hours of it in operation, up 71% from the same period in 2023.

That’s good news for clean energy advocates, including Dalila Rodriguez, who has seen natural gas plants in Port Morris and Mott Haven blast when demand for air conditioning or heating surges, not far from where she works in Hunts Point in the South Bronx.

Batteries can be put to work quickly, sending power to overhead wires instead of these dirty “peaker” plants. Rodriguez hasn’t seen that shift yet, but she hopes to.

“The people exposed to these plants are already the most vulnerable in the environmental justice community,” said Rodriguez, director of the local THE POINT Community Development Corporation, noting that low-income people and communities of color often live near peaker plants.

The 1,000 peaker plants in the U.S. can be extremely dirty, inefficient and costly, according to an analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a watchdog group that works for Congress. An estimated 63 million people live within a three-mile radius of a peaker plant.

Even though peaker plants run for only a short time, they release more harmful nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide per unit of energy, the agency said. Both pollutants can cause asthma and other breathing problems.

Peaker plants also emit more greenhouse gases per unit of electricity than other power plants.

Batteries are “a very obvious solution” to reducing the need for peak generation, said Daniel Chu, senior energy planner at the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance.

Storing excess electricity in batteries can also extend the time of day when clean energy can be used.

“The weather isn’t always sunny and the wind isn’t always blowing, but energy storage can help generate power when it’s needed most,” said Tim Fox, managing director of research firm ClearView Energy Partners.

That’s why at least half of battery storage facilities in the U.S. co-exist with or otherwise support solar facilities, according to an Associated Press analysis of EIA data. Solar generation in the U.S. is growing, surpassing 100 gigawatts this year.

Another benefit of adding these batteries, both for the U.S. grid and grids around the world, is that forecasting becomes more difficult.

“As weather patterns change, the old way of calculating how much capacity you’ll need on the grid for extreme events no longer applies,” said Oliver Garnett, director of energy services products at tech company Fermata Energy.

Finally, global electricity demand is expected to increase by about one-third to three-quarters by 2050, according to the EIA. AI data centers, electrification of vehicles and population growth are all drivers.

“‘Do we have enough power plants?’ That’s the classic question every utility asks every year,” said Mike Jacobs, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science nonprofit. “The beauty of batteries is that if there’s power in them, they can be used for unexpected demand.”

Otherwise, if utilities need to find ways to generate more power, they might continue to invest in plants that burn natural gas or coal, rather than retire those plants, which account for a quarter of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

This year, California has led the way in adding new batteries to the grid, with more than 11 gigawatt-hours of battery capacity in operation. Think of it this way: That’s about the amount of power a nuclear power plant would generate in 11 hours. Then the battery needs to be recharged to generate that much power again. It’s a limited but meaningful amount of power. In Texas, 6 gigawatt-hours are in operation. Arizona has nearly 2 gigawatt-hours in operation, and Nevada — the fourth-largest state in the U.S. for energy storage deployment — has 1.1 gigawatt-hours in operation.

Some regions lag behind

Many states, however, have yet to use energy storage. As of November, 86% of large-scale battery storage in the U.S. was operating in just four states.

Some states have yet to set targets for utilities to build or buy energy storage facilities themselves. Only 18 states have 50 megawatt-hours or more of energy storage facilities.

Others don’t have as much clean electricity to pair with batteries, or claim storage is unreliable in times of crisis. Connecting storage to the grid can also be challenging. Still, experts expect more momentum.

In California and Texas in particular, “the returns on this investment and experimentation have been very strong,” said John Hensley, senior vice president of market and policy analysis at American Clean Energy.

“Word is getting out,” he said. “Increasingly, we’re seeing this technology move to other parts of the country.”