23 Feb 2026
I thank the LDES Council for organising a highly informative webinar on Accelerating Bankability for Long Duration Energy Storage, gathering several professionals in the energy storage sector.
Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is important because it allows energy to be stored for many hours, or even days, quite cheaply, helping balance electricity supply and demand over longer time periods. This is important because it supports renewable energy as both solar and wind power are variable; the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. LDES stores excess energy when production is high and releases it when production drops.
By improving grid reliability it helps prevent blackouts by supplying power during extended outages, extreme weather, or periods of high demand.
LDES provides an incredible variety of storage mechanisms that can store energy ,mechanically,chemically,electrically or thermally unlike traditional lithium ion batteries that are fully electric. Mechanical & thermal energy storage can be used for industrial decarbonisation by performing direct work instead of having to rely on electrical to mechanical or electrical to thermal conversion first. This does present a way to make systems simpler.
However, electrical energy storage still remains strong because of one simple fact. It's easy to transport electrical energy over long distances. It can be & indeed has been transported over continental scale distances.
The problem that this webinar tried to address was how to make LDES technologies, that have already proven themselves on the field , more investor friendly. What would it take to make investors infuse capital into LDES? The advantages are clear,the technology works but still the adoption is slow.
To answer this question the presenters unveiled a whitepaper that identified several points that would make LDES more bankable.The role of business model was determined to be central in attracting investment however it was also considered necessary to actively build investor confidence in the technology using standardization and policy level changes that values long term resilience. Subsequently recommendations were made both to the investors & policy makers that could help address some of the issues facing the LDES industry.
Some of the LDES technologies, like say pumped hydro & compressed air do require huge chunks of investment & should properly be considered infrastructure projects. Other forms like hydrogen or perhaps some thermal energy storage can raise private or venture capital as they already have. Not all LDES technologies can be classified into a single investment scheme. Each one needs to be evaluated on its merits & this is why investor education may be necessary.
The problem I feel that many of LDES technologies suffer from is that their primary business model is energy arbitrage. Buy cheap when production is high due to favorable environmental & market conditions & sell high when demand is at peak. Nothing wrong with that. Many successful trading businesses are built around this very concept but I feel that this approach undersells the actual potential of LDES technologies. They are capable of much more.
The trading approach puts them at the mercy of power generators and distributors. Whereas administrators would probably hesitate to reroute energy to LDES systems because it makes the overall energy infrastructure less flexible. What if they want to set up new industries later? Then they'd need to create more energy production systems.
Here's the catch. If more wind and more solar has to be deployed anyway why not over deploy it and go for grid interconnectivity rather than an LDES system? Climate swings don't affect all regions at once. An interconnected grid solves the problem of seasonal variability almost entirely and its economics are more predictable.
Flow batteries and pumped hydro both have very low energy densities. Pumped hydro requires vast swathes of land with significant environmental impact & frankly it's accessible only in areas where there already is plenty of water.
Compressed air is a bit better but some technical challenges like heat losses during compression & low energy density remain. Liquid air energy systems are abundant and somewhat dense but need special cylinders that can handle cryofluids & of course coolers that can cool the air down to its liquidation temp. One other problem is that of carnot efficiency of liquid air engines that are somewhat less efficient than electric. It all can be done. Can it be done on a scale?
Compressed air and liquid air would make much more sense if compression and liquidation is done mechanically rather than going through a mechanical-electrical-mechanical route.
Hydrogen is much more attractive because of one simple reason. Hydrogen is an industrially relevant chemical that is important not just as a fuel but to make several other platform chemicals. It's essential in the Fischer Tropsch process that promises both sustainable Aviation fuels & production of industrially relevant chemical compounds. Hydrogen is a success because its viability does not depend upon mere trading of energy. It creates its own use cases.
Similarly thermal energy storage: it can not only match lithium-ion in terms of energy density but provide heat for temp control in cold regions or for industrial processes like drying where even low grade heat is valuable. Paired with an engine itself can generate mechanical work for electricity or direct use. Like hydrogen, its versatility makes it useful in multiple scenarios.
This is where LDES technologies can shine. By creating a niche for themselves & by slow procedural improvement replace electrochemical or all electric batteries. Critical technologies that can enable this would be making cheap compressors & mini powerplants (e.g. compact Stirling engines) that can turn this stored heat into electrical energy.
LDES council has done incredible work in building an enthusiastic community eager to explore alternative forms of energy storage. It has also managed to involve some big names like Amazon,Orsted & neom. It was a privilege for me to be present among such industry leaders. I hope that the LDES council succeeds in its mission & makes cheap,abundant,energy storage available for all of humanity.
REFERENCES
Report: Accelerating LDES Bankability
https://ldescouncil.com/accelerating-long-duration-energy-storage-bankability/
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