The world is struggling with simultaneous energy and climate crises. To solve the first may require undoing progress made toward greener power and cleaner air. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Euphoria over electric cars—and the powerpacks that run them—has obscured a more immediate need: batteries to run homes and businesses as countries across the world deal with the repercussions of a power crisis. Despite the worsening state of energy and rising prices, existing technologies aren’t being put to use. Instead, everyone is just thinking about the steepening cost of generation, paralysed by the thought of escalating bills and blackouts.
There’s a simple solution: Store energy and use it when the need arises. As the market for EV batteries expands and evolves, large industrial-scale powerpacks—energy storage systems (ESS)—are…