How does energy storage generate revenue?

In a word, revenue. Energy storage can collect revenue in America’s organized power markets three ways: platforms, products, and pay-days . However, different projects will tap these potential revenue streams in different ways, and investors should seek nimble developers who can navigate a complex and evolving regulatory and market landscape.

Why should you invest in energy storage?

Investment in energy storage can enable them to meet the contracted amount of electricity more accurately and avoid penalties charged for deviations. Revenue streams are decisive to distinguish business models when one application applies to the same market role multiple times.

How can energy storage be profitable?

Where a profitable application of energy storage requires saving of costs or deferral of investments, direct mechanisms, such as subsidies and rebates, will be effective. For applications dependent on price arbitrage, the existence and access to variable market prices are essential.

Should energy storage be regulated?

In markets that do provide regulatory support, such as the PJM and California markets in the United States, energy storage is more likely to be adopted than in those that do not. In most markets, policies and incentives fail to optimize energy-storage deployment.

How do business models of energy storage work?

Building upon both strands of work, we propose to characterize business models of energy storage as the combination of an application of storage with the revenue stream earned from the operation and the market role of the investor.

Which technologies convert electrical energy to storable energy?

These technologies convert electrical energy to various forms of storable energy. For mechanical storage, we focus on flywheels, pumped hydro, and compressed air energy storage (CAES). Thermal storage refers to molten salt technology. Chemical storage technologies include supercapacitors, batteries, and hydrogen.