Energy storage in the context of "Range anxiety"

Energy supply is the delivery of fuels or transformed fuels to point of consumption. It potentially encompasses the extraction, transmission, generation, distribution and storage of fuels. It is also sometimes called energy flow.

This supply of energy can be disrupted by several factors, including imposition of higher energy prices due to action by OPEC or other cartel, war, political disputes, economic disputes, or physical damage to the energy infrastructure due to terrorism. The security of the energy supply is a major concern of national security and energy law.

Climate change mitigation (or decarbonisation) is action to limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. Climate change mitigation actions include conserving energy and replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sources. Secondary mitigation strategies include changes to land use and removing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere. Recent assessments emphasize that global greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 and decline by about 43% by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 °C, requiring rapid transitions in energy, transport, and land-use systems. Current climate change mitigation policies are insufficient as they would still result in global warming of about 2.7 °C by 2100, significantly above the 2015 Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to below 2 °C.

Solar energy and wind power can replace fossil fuels at the lowest cost compared to other renewable energy options. The availability of sunshine and wind is variable and can require electrical grid upgrades, such as using long-distance electricity transmission to group a range of power sources. Energy storage can also be used to even out power output, and demand management can limit power use when power generation is low. Cleanly generated electricity can usually replace fossil fuels for powering transportation, heating buildings, and running industrial processes. Certain processes are more difficult to decarbonise, such as air travel and cement production. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can be an option to reduce net emissions in these circumstances, although fossil fuel power plants with CCS technology is currently a high-cost climate change mitigation strategy.

Energy economics is a broad scientific subject area which includes topics related to supply and use of energy in societies. Considering the cost of energy services and associated value gives economic meaning to the efficiency at which energy can be produced. Energy services can be defined as functions that generate and provide energy to the “desired end services or states”. The efficiency of energy services is dependent on the engineered technology used to produce and supply energy. The goal is to minimise energy input required (e.g. kWh, mJ, see Units of Energy) to produce the energy service, such as lighting (lumens), heating (temperature) and fuel (natural gas). The main sectors considered in energy economics are transportation and building, although it is relevant to a broad scale of human activities, including households and businesses at a microeconomic level and resource management and environmental impacts at a macroeconomic level.

Interdisciplinary scientist Vaclav Smil has asserted that "every economic activity is fundamentally nothing but a conversion of one kind of energy to another, and monies are just a convenient (and often rather unrepresentative) proxy for valuing the energy flows."

An electric vehicle (EV) is any motorized vehicle whose propulsion is provided fully or mostly by electric power, via grid electricity or from onboard rechargeable batteries. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road (electric cars, buses, trucks and personal transporters) and rail vehicles (electric trains, trams and monorails), electric boats and submersibles, electric aircraft (both fixed-wing and multirotors) and electric spacecraft.

Early electric vehicles first came into existence in the late 19th century, when the Second Industrial Revolution brought forth electrification and mass utilization of DC and AC electric motors. Using electricity was among the preferred methods for early motor vehicle propulsion as it provided a level of quietness, comfort and ease of operation that could not be achieved by the gasoline engine cars of the time, but range anxiety due to the limited energy storage offered by contemporary battery technologies hindered any mass adoption of electric vehicles as private transportation throughout the 20th century. Internal combustion engines (both gasoline and diesel engines) were the dominant propulsion mechanisms for cars and trucks for about 100 years, but electricity-powered locomotion remained commonplace in other vehicle types, such as overhead line-powered mass transit vehicles like electric multiple units, streetcars, monorails and trolley buses, as well as various small, low-speed, short-range battery-powered personal vehicles such as mobility scooters.

An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas turbines, are classed as diesel–electric or gas turbine–electric and not as electric locomotives, because the electric generator/motor combination serves only as a power transmission system.

Electric locomotives benefit from the high efficiency of electric motors, often above 90% (not including the inefficiency of generating the electricity). Additional efficiency can be gained from regenerative braking, which allows kinetic energy to be recovered during braking to put power back on the line. Newer electric locomotives use AC motor-inverter drive systems that provide for regenerative braking. Electric locomotives are quiet compared to diesel locomotives since there is no engine and exhaust noise and less mechanical noise. The lack of reciprocating parts means electric locomotives are easier on the track, reducing track maintenance. Power plant capacity is far greater than any individual locomotive uses, so electric locomotives can have a higher power output than diesel locomotives and they can produce even higher short-term surge power for fast acceleration. Electric locomotives are ideal for commuter rail service with frequent stops. Electric locomotives are used on freight routes with consistently high traffic volumes, or in areas with advanced rail networks. Power plants, even if they burn fossil fuels, are far cleaner than mobile sources such as locomotive engines. The power can also come from low-carbon or renewable sources, including geothermal power, hydroelectric power, biomass, solar power, nuclear power and wind turbines. Electric locomotives usually cost 20% less than diesel locomotives, their maintenance costs are 25–35% lower, and cost up to 50% less to run.

A motor fuel is a fuel that is used to provide power to the engine (motor) of vehicles — typically a heat engine that produces thermal energy via oxidative combustion of liquid or gaseous fuel and then converts the heat into mechanical energy through reciprocating pistons or gas turbines.

Currently, the majority of motor vehicles, powerboats and light aircraft worldwide are propelled by internal combustion engines powered by petroleum-based hydrocarbon fossil fuels such as gasoline, diesel or autogas, while larger ships and aircraft use marine diesel oil and kerosene to power gas/steam turbine, turboprop and jet engines. Other fuel types include ethanol, biodiesel, biogasoline, propane, compressed natural gas (CNG) and hydrogen (either using fuel cells or hydrogen combustion). There are also cars that use a hybrid drivetrain of different power sources. The use of synthetic alternative fuels (especially renewable biofuels) is increasing, especially in Europe, as well as increasing mass adoption of battery electric vehicles (which are powered by battery-stored electricity instead of fuels).

Grid energy storage, also known as large-scale energy storage, is a set of technologies connected to the electrical power grid that store energy for later use. These systems help balance supply and demand by storing excess electricity from variable renewables such as solar and inflexible sources like nuclear power, releasing it when needed. They further provide essential grid services, such as helping to restart the grid after a power outage.

As of 2023, the largest form of grid storage is pumped-storage hydroelectricity, with utility-scale batteries and behind-the-meter batteries coming second and third. Lithium-ion batteries are well suited for short-duration storage (under 8 hours), due to their lower cost and sensitivity to degradation at high states of charge. Flow batteries and compressed air energy storage may provide storage for medium-duration. Two forms of storage are suited for long-duration storage: green hydrogen, produced via electrolysis and thermal energy storage.

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. A PSH system stores energy in the form of gravitational potential energy of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost surplus off-peak electric power is typically used to run the pumps. During periods of high electrical demand, the stored water is released through turbines to produce electric power.

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity allows energy from intermittent sources (such as solar, wind, and other renewables) or excess electricity from continuous base-load sources (such as coal or nuclear) to be saved for periods of higher demand.The reservoirs used with pumped storage can be quite small, when contrasted with the lakes of conventional hydroelectric plants of similar power capacity, and generating periods are often less than half a day.

Fossil fuel phase-out is the proposed gradual global reduction of the use and production of fossil fuels to zero, to reduce air pollution, limit climate change, and strengthen energy independence. It is part of the ongoing renewable energy transition.

Many countries are shutting down coal-fired power stations, and fossil-fuelled electricity generation is thought to have peaked. But electricity generation is not moving off coal fast enough to meet climate goals. Many countries have set dates to stop selling petrol and diesel cars and trucks, but a timetable to stop burning fossil gas has not yet been agreed.