Energy Storage

It seems like energy storage, aka batteries, is the weakest link in large scale renewable energy adoption at the moment. Current solutions are expensive and dangerous. While there has been some exciting news recently with Arpa-E’s announcement about their research breakthroughs, it seems like there is still a long way to go.

My research has left me wondering:

What are the challenges facing large scale energy storage nationally? What about in NYC specifically

Is funding a main issue?

What are the challenges of energy infrastructure in NYC?

What are the pitfalls of current battery types and systems?

How is the NYC energy grid vulnerable to and resistant to disruptions?

I’m hoping that NYU professor Zivan Zabar of the Engineering Dept can help me answer these questions.

Link Dump:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-14/gates-pritzkers-take-on-musk-in-5-billion-race-for-new-battery

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/03/us-agency-says-has-beaten-elon-musk-gates-to-holy-grail-battery-storage?CMP=share_btn_fb

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/30/major-powers-pledge-20bn-for-green-energy-research

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/30/bill-gates-breakthrough-energy-coalition-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-microsoft-amazon