Thermal and compressed air storage cheaper than lithium-ion batteries for 8-plus hour durations: BNEF

• One long-duration storage executive questioned whether economies of scale could fully explain lower Chinese capex costs for compressed air, flow battery and thermal energy storage systems.
• “There are domestic market conditions in China that frankly can’t be replicated in other markets for commercial viability,” said Curt VanWalleghem, co-founder and CEO of Hydrostor, which develops and operates energy storage systems that use compressed air, rock and water. “We’re not convinced that the amount of LDES deployment in China is related to technological innovation or scale, but rather is likely related to factors like domestic labor rates and government subsidies.”
• Accordingly, while China is likely to be an important LDES market in the future, “[Hydrostor’s] focus is on ensuring policies in markets like the U.S., the U.K., India and Australia acknowledge the importance of developing LDES for the continued reliability of the grid, and that they outline timelines for those procurements,” VanWalleghem added.

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