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Page 2: Financing the expansion >> By Elisa Wood
AOL Energy
But that could change if Congress adopts an investment tax credit for energy storage technologies. Introduced by U.S. Representatives Chris Gibson, a Republican from New York, and California Democrat Mike Thompson, the bill offers energy storage the same kind of tax advantage that has spurred double digit annual growth in the wind and solar industries. A multitude of choices Energy storage is not one technology, but a range of devices, such as advanced batteries, compressed air, ice storage, pumped hydro and fly wheels, which help grid operators with the second-by-second balancing of supply and demand on the electric grid. "Electricity has to be made at the precise time we consume it, and that leads to very real challenges," Acker said. Unlike wind and solar power, energy storage hasn't yet captured the public imagination because many of these devices are in an earlier stage of development, emerging more recently out of research and development and into commercial readiness, according to Katherine Hamilton, policy director of the Electricity Storage Association (ESA) Advocacy Council. Full disclosure: Hamilton is also a member of the AOL Energy Editorial Advisory Board. Energy storage offers fixes for frequency regulation, congestion, back-up power, demand response, energy cost management and other grid needs. It also offers size advantage in an era when urban crowding and not-in-my-backyard protests stymie construction of large transmission lines and power plants. "You can't put a natural gas-fired peaker in the middle of Manhattan," Hamilton said. "You can put a battery anywhere." The technology appears to have bipartisan acceptance, even in today's deeply divided Congress, Hamilton said. Still, ESA is realistic about the bill's chances of passing Congress before the election. Hamilton handicaps it at "about zero." That's okay, though, she said, because ESA's intent at this stage is to use the legislation to educate lawmakers and the public about energy storage. "Most people don't know what energy storage is," she said. The bill is meant to make it "become part of the conversation" when Congress does takes up energy policy again. Page 2: Financing the expansion >>
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