Last month, ARENA hosted the Insights Forum, bringing together 137 industry stakeholders to discuss the role of storage in the energy transition. This Insights Newsletter highlights key takeaways and knowledge from the event.
Insights extract
A key theme arising at the Insights Forum was the crucial role long-duration energy storage (LDES) will play in moving towards a 100% renewable energy economy.
Keynote speaker, Alex Campbell (Director of Policy and Partnerships at the Long-duration Energy Storage Council) provided a global perspective on the state of LDES ambitions, noting the need for policy reform and market incentives to accelerate the implementation of these technologies.
Presenters and panellists discussed the potential of innovative LDES technologies, such as concentrated solar thermal (Raygen) and zinc-bromine flow batteries (Redflow), to provide grid resilience or to support regional microgrids (as seen in Horizon’s presentation).
The opportunities for long-duration thermal storage for industrial heat processes were also discussed, noting that scale-up and deployment needs to accelerate given the maturity of heat decarbonisation is significantly lower than that of electricity generation.
