Alec J. Ernst^1,, Isaac Ansah¹, Keyshon Bachus¹, Charles Kporxah¹, Olusegun S. Tomomewo¹

Population increase, energy dependency and climate change are issues causing the world to rapidly focus on clean and renewable sources of energy. With a business-as-usual attitude, further consequences may ensue. Renewable energy will drive diversification of fuels and allow for energy infrastructures to become more independent from remote grids. Renewable energy is good for the planet and is virtually inexhaustible, unlike fossil fuels. Within the United States, numerous clean power projects have been set in place to support powering the electric grid with 100% clean energy by 2050. Constraints to this plan are that renewable energy is not available around the clock and has limited infrastructural investments for transmission, distribution etc. Energy storage can help to close the gap by efficient delivery of inflexible, baseload clean energy resources. Energy storage will be key to reliably delivering clean energy and understanding this role in the evolution of renewable energy and its effect on the environment has not been fully studied. This work investigates the role of energy storage in bridging the lapses between renewable energy production and climate change mitigation efforts. By using case studies, we showed the potential of energy storage in renewable energy curtailment efforts and reducing emissions associated with electric power generation. Legislation will play an important role in relaxing the market barriers to the deployment of renewable and storage systems. An overhaul of the bureaucratic structures in favor of renewable energy and its allied technologies such as energy storage systems, is required to allow a seamless transition into a new era in which clean energy dominates the share of the energy mix.

Renewable Energy, Energy Storage, Sustainability, Climate Change, Energy Systems, Fossil Fuels