Why it's important

Large scale energy storage would have many benefits for the energy grid in both the near term and the future. There can be immediate improvements in the efficiency of the electrical grid by running efficient power plants at 100% capacity all the time. In the long term, it can allow for better incorporation of clean energy sources such as Wind, Solar, and Nuclear.

Every time the demand changes, the amount of energy being produced must change, and the higher the demand, the lower the efficiency of the power plants used. This whole system is very wasteful and could be made much more efficient if a given amount of energy were produced and then excess stored until it is needed. It makes more sense to run efficient plants all the time and be able to store their excess energy. As overall and peak demand increase, using only the most efficient power plants means building fewer new plants to handle the higher peaks. This also makes the amount of energy needed more predictable, eliminating the need for as much standby power as we currently use. Standby power is the power plants that are ready to turn on in a moment's notice if demand increases. It takes a lot of energy to keep a power plant in this state, without producing much of anything. Large scale storage would eliminate this waste.

Large scale storage also benefits clean energy sources. Solar and wind don't supply constant amounts of energy. Although there is the argument that the wind is always blowing somewhere and that the grid should be able to work it out from that, the general consensus is that in order to provide more than 20% of our total energy from wind and/or solar, we need to have some large scale storage systems in place. Storage would make it so that there would be less need for backup power plants. Storage would also help make nuclear more efficient. Nuclear energy relies on decaying uranium rods that are constantly decaying from the time they are mined. They have a set lifespan no matter how much energy we get out of them. When a nuclear power plant is running at less than 100%, we are simply wasting the energy it could be producing.

So, in short, large scale storage would allow us to use more energy from solar, wind, and nuclear, use only the most efficient fossil fuel plants, and build fewer new power plants overall.