This report is the seventh and final publication from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Storage Futures Study (SFS). The SFS is a multiyear research project that explores how energy storage could impact the evolution and operation of the U.S. power sector. The study examined the impact of energy storage technology advancement on the deployment of utility-scale storage and the adoption of distributed storage, as well as future power system infrastructure investment and operations. Some of the questions NREL sought to answer throughout this study included: (1) How might storage cost and performance change over time? (2) What is the role of diurnal energy storage in the power sector, even absent drivers or policies that increase renewable energy shares? (3) How much diurnal grid storage might be economically deployed in the United States, both at the utility-scale and distribution-scale? (4) What factors might drive that deployment? And (5) How might increased levels of diurnal storage impact grid operations? Research findings and supporting data from the study have been published in a series of seven publications, which are listed in the table on the next page. Key learnings from throughout the study have culminated in this final report that helps shape the vision of energy storage moving forward. The SFS series provides data and analysis in support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Storage Grand Challenge, a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next[1]generation energy storage technologies and sustain American global leadership in energy storage. The Energy Storage Grand Challenge employs a use-case framework to ensure storage technologies can cost-effectively meet specific needs, and it incorporates a broad range of technologies in several categories: electrochemical, electromechanical, thermal, flexible generation, flexible buildings, and power electronics.
