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Grid-scale storage is the fastest-growing energy technology

From giant batteries to compressed gas, energy storage is booming

Illustration of  batteries making a map of the world
Illustration: Ricardo Rey
|NEW YORK

By Vijay Vaitheeswaran, Global energy and climate innovation editor, The Economist

Energy storage for the electrical grid is about to hit the big time. By the reckoning of the International Energy Agency (iea), a forecaster, grid-scale storage is now the fastest-growing of all the energy technologies. In 2025, some 80 gigawatts (gw) of new grid-scale energy storage will be added globally, an eight-fold increase from 2021.

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2025 under the headline “Energy’s next big thing”

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