Hydrogen -  the recent option

Storage is central to the universal use of renewable energy. Hydrogen plays an important role in this. However, hydrogen cannot be stored as easily as other gases. For the energy needs of small and medium-sized businesses, only storage in stationary pressure vessels and transport in trailers are currently feasible. Pressure vessels are very long-term capital goods and therefore fit very well with a regenerative circular economy. Using hydrogen technology completely not only for electrical power storage but also as a marketable gas and the waste heat for urban heating hydrogen is the recently cheapest way to store green energy efficiently.

Batteries are coming up

Batteries are increasingly conquering the market. Lithium-based batteries currently dominate. However, lithium-ion batteries are a less recommendable alternative for large-scale storage due to their heat generation (fire risk), the sometimes toxic components and the high costs. Lithium iron phosphate batteries are much more suitable because they do not heat up too much, but they are still expensive and not suitable for high currents with liquid electrolytes. The development of redox flow batteries, which are much cheaper and offer large storage volumes without serious discharge losses, will be exciting. However, these will not be available on an industrial scale before 2027.