Foresight review of energy storage

Energy storage is a key enabling technology for low-carbon power, transport and heating infrastructures. 

Critical systems store energy to continue delivering key services during upgrades and disruptions. Thermal storage allows us to make use of waste heat and cold, and can be integrated into delivery chains, protecting food and medicine. Energy storage provides remote communities and developing nations the opportunity to function without costly infrastructure development.

Integrating energy storage into existing systems is extremely complex, making it harder to predict and manage failures. This impacts first and second responders, as well as installers and other operators, who need to understand how to manage the new hazards. Considerations for secondary markets need to be addressed, to prevent unexpected hazards being exported to other owners or countries. 

The review considers the different forms of low-carbon energy storage and identifies the opportunities and threats to safety that are associated with their application.

Key findings from the review include:

• Safety and sustainability can be incorporated into the design of energy storage devices and systems to mitigate many of the risks
• Safety engineering can be applied to all stages of the device’s manufacture and use, and standards can provide guidance for best practice
• Infrastructure planning, which takes all components of the system, local resources and requirements into account, can allow the most effective deployment of the technology
• The location of energy storage and the degree to which it should be either distributed or centralised can impact safety as well as cost

The review has highlighted the following as priority areas to make a distinctive contribution to safer energy storage: 

• storage systems support 

• through-life safety and sustainability 

• public engagement, skills and knowledge 

• maximising value from demonstrators

If you wish to use and reference the Foresight Review of Energy Storage, please include the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.60743/kz1w-a517

Example Citation in Harvard Style:

Lloyd's Register Foundation (2017) Foresight Review of Energy Storage. Lloyd's Register Foundation. doi: 10.60743/KZ1W-A517.