Significance of energy storages in future power networks

As a result of the major challenges the world is facing today due to global warming and the ever decreasing conventional sources of energy such as fossil fuels, developing methodologies for harnessing all possible forms of renewable energy has become a heavily researched area within the power and energy research communities. Deploying energy storages increases the possibilities of harnessing several sources of renewable energy in a more meaningful manner. Some of the key areas where energy storages could make things better, when it comes to harnessing renewable energy sources are, Wind energy, Bio energy, Geothermal energy, Solar energy and Wave energy. The paper investigates application examples of energy storages in these areas through a thorough review of reported scientific literature. On the other hand, major energy consuming areas such as transportation, manufacturing, electricity consumers etc. could also benefit by the introduction of energy storages. As an example, in transportation, increasing usage of hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in electric vehicles and emerging new concepts in transportation such as electric highways have raised the significant role of energy storage solutions for transportation to its highest level. It is believed that this way of looking at the energy storages will strategically position them with the significance they deserve within the energy and power engineering research community. © 2017 The Authors.