Insight 03: Bringing Cheap, Clean and Reliable Energy to Developing Countries
The Faraday Institution and the Department for International Development (DfID) commissioned consultants Vivid Economics to perform a rapid market and technology assessment of storage in weak and off-grid contexts in developing countries, to which this Insight refers.
Read the full report by Vivid Economics.
Summary
Over 800 million people worldwide do not have access to electricity and, of those that do, many suffer from an unreliable supply. Diesel and petrol generators commonly used in developing countries bring problems of noise, air quality and climate impacts. Energy storage technologies including batteries have the potential to replace generators and provide cheap, clean and reliable electricity to millions of people.
Focus of the Insight
As markets in developing countries grow, the range of storage technologies which could play a role in meeting demand include:
- electrochemical battery storage technologies: lithium-ion,
sodium-ion, redox flow, zinc-air and lithium-sulphur; - mechanical storage technologies: pumped hydropower,
compressed air, flywheels; - thermal storage technologies: ranging from molten salt to
pumped electric heat storage; and - hydrogen storage.
This Faraday Insight focuses on three markets where electrochemical battery forms of energy storage could be particularly effective: (1) weak-grid and off-grid applications; (2) replacement of diesel generators; and (3) utility-scale energy storage applications.
Conclusion
The potential for batteries to provide cheap, clean electricity to millions of people is huge, replacing thousands of polluting diesel generators in the process. The Faraday Institution is supporting this effort by funding further research into new and existing battery technologies and is engaging with the World Bank and others to ensure that this potential is realised.
Further scientific research and changes in policy direction can catalyse the uptake of energy storage in developing countries. These include:
- Research into lowering material costs by exploring the potential of new battery chemistries;
- Delivering improvements in efficiency that can unlock system cost reductions;
- Strengthening the economic incentives and access to finance for households and businesses in order to increase the financial viability of energy storage business models;
- Setting standards to enable validated designs of new technologies; and
- Improving the awareness of new energy storage technology and investing in pilot projects demonstrating the performance and scale-up of these technologies.