Bill introduced to boost nation's electricity storage capacity

One of the biggest problems with solar, wind and other renewable energy forms is their unpredictability: if the sun doesn't shine, or the wind doesn't blow, or the seas are becalmed, no energy is produced, which, while it can lead to pleasantly spontaneous candlelit dinners, may also cause those dinners to consist of cold sandwiches.

On the other hand, when the sun does shine, or the wind does blow, or the seas do churn, renewables are an undeniably (unless you're someone who's connection to practical realities is warped beyond all belief by your own need to make a short-term buck pillaging the earth and poisoning your fellow citizens – I'm talking to you, Koch brothers) brilliant way to generate electricity. It's also one that will become much cheaper than most other forms once economies of scale start to take effect.

The problems, though, are those of storage and transmission. You need to get the wave-generated electricity from the watery coast to the monotonous cornfields; or the wind energy from the monotonous cornfields to the mountainous forests; or the solar power from sunny Nevada to chilly Minnesota. And you need to find a place to put all that electricity when it isn't being used, which is also insurance against those cloudy becalmed days.

Unfortunately, the US is essentially an undeveloped nation when it comes to meeting those challenges, due to the fact that any time anyone in politics tries to do something to improve America's infrastructure his or her rivals accuse them of socialism.

Luckily, though, despite these challenges, there is a little action underway. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) are introducing a bill, the Storage Technology for Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2011 (STORAGE), that may help jump-start the laborious process of boosting the energy storage side of things. It provides tax credits to both businesses and homeowners who install storage facilities, where all that renewable (or even nuclear or whatever, but one hopes the storage will be used for Good Things) energy can be safely secured until it's time to use it.

Here are a few highlights from Wyden's release:

U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman introduced the Storage Technology for Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2011 (STORAGE) to jump start the development of energy storage technology to better manage capacity to meet peak energy needs and make it possible for intermittent energy sources like wind and solar power to reach their potential.

As the percentage of energy from wind and solar increases, the energy grid must also adjust to the intermittent nature of these technologies. Renewable generation capability changes with the weather and the time of day and not necessarily when power is most needed. Advancements in energy storage technologies will provide more efficient management of peak energy needs while simultaneously promoting the growth of clean, renewable energy technologies.

“The missing piece of the renewable energy debate has always been how to make those technologies reliable when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow,” Wyden said. “Technologies that not only store energy to cover for intermittent output but also make the existing grid more efficient could be the very thing renewable energy technologies need to break through to the mainstream.”

According to the Electric Power Research Institute, more than 25 percent of the equipment and capacity of the U.S. electric distribution system and 10 percent of transmission equipment are needed to meet the demands of less than 400 hours of peak electricity use each year. The only resources currently agile enough to meet that demand are fossil fuels. The STORAGE Act offers business incentives for the development of technologies that can better store energy created during non-peak hours and distribute it to meet peak demand. This will make the grid more efficient than it is now, reduce reliance on burning fossil fuels and minimize a barrier preventing intermittent energy sources like solar and wind from breaking through into the mainstream.

The STORAGE Act provides a 20 percent investment tax credit of up to $40 million for storage systems that are connected to the electric grid and a 30 percent investment tax credit of up to $1 million to businesses and homeowners for on-site storage projects.  It provides tax credits to businesses and homeowners who install energy storage on their own property to help serve their own energy needs efficiently or capture energy from on-site renewable energy generation. The bill does not pick “winners and losers” and allows the market to decide which technologies are the best and not specifically singling out any one resource.

With any luck, the bill might have a chance of getting through Congress, particularly since it involves cutting taxes, which seems to be all that anybody thinks is important these days.