Renewable energy is the key for decarbonizing our society. However, without proper energy storage, the intermittent availability of variable renewable energy sources (i.e., wind and solar) makes them challenging to provide stable and reliable outputs. At SEES, we develop and enable strategies for storing energy for short and long-duration thermal, chemical and electrical end uses.
The SEES department supports the broad research on energy storage at LBNL through systems analysis, and technology roadmapping.
Battery Supply Chains
- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Technoeconomic Analysis (TEA) of pathways for domestic lithium production from geothermal brines
- LCA and TEA for battery energy storage system (BESS) materials, manufacturing, operation and recycling
Thermal Energy Storage
Besides electricity use, high-temperature heat is another type of application that is hard to decarbonize. Various carbon-intense industries such as cement and iron/steel require heat supply up to 1000 degrees C, which is hard to meet by traditional thermal energy storage technologies. We co-develop novel materials and storage systems that can efficiently convert excess renewables into high-temperature heat for storage, and directly release them at various target temperatures for the above industries. We use process modeling and techno-economics analysis (TEA) to identify the performance and cost targets to integrate these thermal energy storage materials and systems into power grids and industry.
- Identification of performance and cost targets for high temperature thermal energy storage systems
- Design and TEA of thermal energy storage systems integrated into power grids and industry
- Co-development of novel materials and storage systems that rely on joule heating a solid storage material
- Prototyping and demonstration of thermal energy storage technologies for buildings