[RockBot]

Three U.S. senators have introduced a bill to promote electric grid energy storage projects. The Storage Technology of Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2010 ("STORAGE 2010 Act") would provide tax credits worth as much as $1.5 billion for grid storage projects.

In addition to providing credits for utility scale projects, the bill also has provisions for businesses and homeowners who want to have on-site energy storage, whether or not they also have on-site renewable energy generation of their own. Grid scale projects could qualify for a 20% tax credit of up to $30 million, and individual projects could qualify for a 30% tax credit of up to $1 million.

Projects would be selected by the Energy Secretary based on their commercial viability and would look to those that "provide the greatest increase of reliability or economic benefit, that enable the greatest improvement in integration of renewable energy resources with the grid, or that enable the greatest increase in efficiency in grid operation."

Encouraging increased grid storage capacity is meant to help further the adoption of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Grid storage should also help in furthering a more reliable smart grid for national energy distribution.

image: CC 2.0 by -5m

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EcoGeek/~4/Y55dwQWsbqk

View the full article