Energy Storage and Civilization

Graham Palmer is a researcher who divides his time between industry and academia. He has an industry background as an engineer and researcher in manufacturing, HVAC and electronics. He has published in the area of biophysical economics, renewable energy, life-cycle analysis, and energy-economic modelling. Graham obtained his PhD in the area of energy-return-on-investment (EROI) of electricity supply. His current research interests include the future roles of energy storage systems.Joshua Floyd is a researcher and educator in the area of energy and societal futures. His work draws on training and experience in futures studies and strategic foresight, and systems thinking and practice. His early engineering career focused on technology development and commercialization in the extractive metallurgy industry. His qualifications include a Master of Science (Strategic Foresight) and Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical). He is Energy, Systems and Society Fellowat The Rescope Project.

“Their new book Energy Storage and Civilization: A Systems Approach … is an important contribution to biophysical economics – marvelously clear, deep and detailed where necessary, and remarkably thorough for a work of just over 150 pages. … Energy Storage and Civilization is a superb overview of [the] challenges for the waning years of fossil fuel civilization.” (Resilience, resilience.org, March 5, 2020)

• Introduction.- History as a guide to understanding the future of storage.- Storage with fossil fuels.- Energy primer for storage analysis.- Comparing market and biophysical approaches to evaluating electricity storage.- Electricity: a new challenge for storage.- The role of storage in management of electricity grids.- The use of scenario analyses to estimate the magnitude of storage.- Hydrogen as an energy carrier.- Synthesis and conclusions.