Business energy storage financing leasing model

Should the energy storage industry evaluate policies and financing models?

The next consideration is for the energy storage industry to evaluate the policies and financing models that have allowed the renewable energy industry to expand over the last decade and to replicate what worked well and improve on the identified shortcomings.

What is a solar plus storage power purchase agreement (PPA)?

Recently, contracts have been awarded that include both renewable energy and energy storage such as the solar plus storage power purchase agreements (PPA)s executed in Hawaii and Arizona [4,5]. In these innovative contracts the cost of energy, including demand charges, are used as the basis of the PPA price.

Is energy storage a solution?

The energy storage industry has made great progress in developing technology, standards, and market policies and is poised to offer solutions to rapidly changing energy markets. Currently, energy storage as a solution is more inhibited by project financing than by the technology itself.

Do energy storage systems provide value to the grid?

It is now clear that energy storage systems (ESSs) can provide valuable services to the grid. For systems to be deployed, however, the value of the services that they provide must exceed the costs of the system over its lifetime. This introduces the first challenge surrounding energy storage financing – quantifying the benefits of an ESS.

Why is energy storage important?

Energy storage is central to enabling broad renewable energy adoption and has been identified as the ultimate solution for allowing intermittent sources, such as wind and solar, to meet utility base load demands . Managing the variability and intermittency of renewable energy is a major challenge to achieving higher grid penetration.

Is energy storage a viable alternative to renewables?

Energy storage can address this challenge by increasing the flexibility of grid operations in an economical and environmentally friendly way. Although energy storage still remains a relatively small market, as was the case with renewables a decade ago, growth is on the horizon.