We need Battery Energy Storage Systems to efficiently deal with electricity demand spikes by storing the growing excess of solar energy currently being wasted. Global use of BESS, from 2018-2024, increased from near zero to over 300 gigawatt-hours. 2025 and following years will continue to show larger increases each year.
Texas has revamped most of its electric grid using BESS, so that surges in demand – both summer and winter – no longer pose more than a 1% threat to grid reliability. From 2018-2024, BESS failure instances have fallen from 1.5 per GWh to less than 0.1 per GWh.
This dramatic increase in safety is due to better control systems and to the use of new types of lithium-ion batteries made of different materials. These new, lithium-ion batteries last longer and store less electrical energy per pound. They are less prone to fire or explosion than the batteries in electric vehicles and consumer electronics, which must store more energy per pound. The newer batteries are cheaper to make, and BESS can easily use extra space and weight because they are stationary on the ground.
BESS systems are quieter and use much less space than gas wells, and they do not release methane and other pollutants. Combining rapidly increasing solar energy with BESS is the cheapest, safest, and best way to provide for our current and future use of clean electricity.
Richard L Brown
Durango
