مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مهندسی فناوری اطلاعات و ارتباطات ICT، مدیریت

New developments in energy production and the behaviour of consumers require changes in the configuration of the power system, in order to assure an efficient and reliable power supply. Energy storage may be one of those changes, as a means to smoothen out the intermittent energy production by renewable energy sources (RES). Battery systems are often mentioned as a suitable technology for this purpose. However, the general consensus seems to be that before one can make a viable business case for batteries, the technology first has to develop further. Different chemistries, such as Lithium-Polymer, LithiumSulphur and Metal-Air batteries, are promising new battery types that could make distributed energy storage economically viable. But in order to develop new systems and maximize the value proposition of decentralized storage, different parties will need to cooperate and experiment with new systems in real practice.

For the storage of electric power to become widely adopted in the electric power system, it will require both technical innovation to produce better storage technologies as well as system innovation within the energy industry to integrate electricity storage in the supply chain. Innovation of large socio-technical systems are usually complicated processes that may take a long time and include a lot of contingencies. This is partly due to the inherent dependence on many different actors, making the system difficult to steer. Also, big socio-technical systems are characterized by stability and lock-in effects where swift changes are hindered by sunk costs in technologies (power plants, lines and cables, etc.), skills and belief systems (Verbong and Geels, 2010).

It is crucial for technology forecasting and public planning to better understand long term patterns of innovation of certain energy technologies, such as energy storage. Particularly in the context of climate change and the ongoing energy transition (Huenteler et al., 2015). Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) has been suggested as a suitable framework for the analysis of the social aspects of technological development of battery development. CTA has been developed as a soft intervention practice aimed at aligning expectations of different stakeholders in order to facilitate this kind of innovation. The involvement of different stakeholders in the design process of emerging technologies should result in the adoption of new technologies that are better suited for the needs and expectations of society (Baumann et al., 2014; Schot and Rip, 1997; te Kulve, 2012).