23 March 2026
Over the last couple of days I had the pleasure of participating in two very important conferences, 'Path to Deployment for Long Duration Energy Storage’ by LDES council together with the International renewable energy agency and ’the future of hydrogen mobility’ by hydrogen europe. Both the LDES council and Hydrogen Europe are working very hard to raise awareness among policy makers and investors about the importance of alternative sources of energy storage and their role in decarbonisation of the grid and industries.
For large scale deployment of Long Duration Energy storage technology new investment is critical but investors won't invest in a technology that does not provide a reliable ,safe and guaranteed path for a return.
During the webinar experts at IRENA,LDES and from regional markets in North America,Asia and Europe presented their views on how this chicken and egg problem could be resolved.
The main angle that the council has taken for attracting investment in LDES is that LDES enables smoothing out variability in energy demand and energy supply by storing energy when it's cheap and plentiful and giving it back when its demand rises. This is especially useful for renewable technologies because they are the worst hit during seasonal ‘dry spells’ for wind and night and day cycles for solar.
For this strategy to work, LDES council is pushing for stronger grid interconnection because it maximizes the value of long-duration storage, allows excess renewable energy to be shared across regions, and reduces the need for local fossil backup. Its engagement with several government bodies was highlighted during this conference in particular as representatives from The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) , Regulatory energy transition Accelerator (RETA) asserted their support for grid interconnectivity. Through international partnerships I have no doubt that the LDES council will eventually succeed in their objective.
Grid interconnectivity in particular is seeing interest not just at national level but also at international level. We have even seen ambitious plans like the proposed 4200KM link between Singapore and Australia. Grid interconnectivity benefits everyone and it's something that would naturally happen over time as renewable infrastructure densifies.
Grid interconnectivity is important because land is very expensive. And places where renewable energy can be generated for cheap — deserts/frozen landscapes don't have that many industries or settlements. New York state has a relatively high renewable energy generation but even with all the investment in the world NY would find it difficult to self sustain itself in terms of energy because of one simple reason. Availability of land. It might be possible but it won't be easy.
The problem that NY faces is the one that every province in every country faces or would face. Either there would not be enough energy demand. Or if there is enough demand there is paucity of either energy resource or land. Grid interconnectivity solves this issue.
Hydrogen Europe on the other side is dealing with the same issue. Hydrogen is in fact a form of long duration energy storage but there are adoption issues. Very slow penetration because of a similar chicken and egg problem.
People won’t buy hydrogen vehicles without refueling stations.Investors won’t build stations without enough vehicles. This is an infrastructure problem. Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility paid for building hydrogen infrastructure. Now the fund has dried up so new sources of investment must be explored especially as Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation mandates countries to build fueling stations themselves.
Rich nations like Germany and Netherlands might be able to afford it but it's quite probable that east EU nations especially in the Balkan region may lag behind as they have lagged behind in industrialisation. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
The big problem that renewable energy in general is facing is that it is trying to fit itself in a world that is built on fossil fuels. It's focussing on slow and steady change trying to gain ground inch by inch in hopes that one day that tables will turn. It's not a bad strategy. Reliance on imported fuel is fraught with geopolitical dangers and it will be overall good if renewable could meet demands. But I believe even if investment is provided, renewable energy solutions face a huge materials problem. Technically less than 1% of the total area of the planet will cover all of our energy needs but to build on that scale and to manage it, that itself is such an enormous challenge. Investment alone will not solve this issue. Massive innovation in materials science is needed ,reskilling of the workforce is needed. This will take time.
What do we do till then? What moves can we make?
Renewable energy must bootstrap itself. It needs to be profitable from day one. It's not possible with current solutions that are available but it can be done with new tools.
Those dry deserts have quadrillion tonnes of sand in them. 1 solar lens and you could spin more than a kg of fiber a day. That's real profit. And it's all green. Minimal investment. Massively scalable.
One way to think is to store the excess energy in some sort of a battery like lithium or a chemical like hydrogen . But there is another way to approach the problem. Instead of storing, use that excess energy to perform work. This unlocks several possibilities. Desalination,water transport over massive distances to build agricultural capacity and address food shortages. Outlandish ideas like melting ice in Siberia to send water down the pipe in central Asia make sense.
Energy availability is not an issue. 80 thousand TW of power hits land daily. That's 4 times more than all of humanity's annual power consumption. Only about 1-2% of total solar input is stored in ocean and wind that drives climate less than 1% in photosynthesis. There is no shortage of energy. So even seemingly inefficient systems can drive transformation on a planetary scale
The mindset that treats energy as a finite and shared resource limits thinking and positions renewable energy as something of a dead weight and an item on a bureaucratic checklist that needs to be ticked before moving on to more pressing matters. But that's selling renewable short. RE has the potential to completely transform our industries and create wealth and prosperity on a scale that is impossible to achieve with fossils.
Resource conservation is important but creation of new resources is just as important.
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Akshat Jiwan Sharma
Materials science/International relations/Partnerships
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