Abstract:
This paper provides a survey of the history and future of storage development in the US and policy
and analytical questions relating to storage. The paper discusses the history of storage development in
the US, and some of the limitations in how storage investment was justified beginning in the 1970s,
when much of the US’s current storage capacity was built. Then we discuss potential uses of storage
beyond serving as an alternative to peaking capacity and uses of storage by entities other than a
traditional vertically-integrated utility. After we lay out some policy and research questions related to
energy storage and show how questions such as regulation, market products, and ownership can
greatly affect the true value of storage and incentives for and efficiency of storage use and investment.
