The world needs 140TWh of long-term energy storage in 2040

According to the latest report, 85 to 140 TWh of long-term energy storage technologies, such as pumped hydro, flow batteries and concentrated solar thermal, will need to be deployed globally by 2040 to achieve a net-zero emissions grid.

Although lithium-ion battery storage technology is becoming the mainstream technology in the world, it still cannot meet the demand for long-term energy storage for up to 8 hours or even longer.

Achieving a net-zero grid by 2040 requires the deployment of 1.5-2.5TW and 85-140TWh of long-term energy storage globally, accounting for 10% of global electricity consumption, and an estimated investment of around US$1.5 trillion or more.

In Australia, as shown in the chart below, the report shows that the total addressable market for long-duration energy storage is between 20-40GW and 0.5-1 TWh from 2030 to 2040.

This figure is four to seven times the total deployment of lithium-ion battery storage worldwide today, and five to eleven times the total investment in renewable energy in 2020.

But it’s important to note: “The high penetration rate of renewable energy will have an impact on the reliability and stability of the power system.” Therefore, if the power sector is to be fully decarbonized, three key challenges need to be overcome: power supply and demand imbalance, transmission flow patterns changes and the inertia of the system decreases.

Long-term energy storage technology can store electrical energy for hours, days or even weeks, and it must be the biggest direction for future technological breakthroughs.

Only in this way can the energy supply needs of the grid be met at a critical moment, and at the same time, in the current era of rising power consumption, the cost of competitiveness needs to continue to decline.