Talking New Energy: What’s holding back long duration energy storage? Insights from the LDES Council

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In this episode, we speak to Julia Souder, CEO of the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council, about what is holding back the next phase of long duration energy storage. As renewable generation grows and demand from data centres and industry accelerates, Julia explains why the energy system needs flexibility beyond short-duration batteries, and why market design could be the key to unlocking it. 

We discuss:

• How growing renewable generation, grid constraints and the rapid expansion of data centres are creating a need for flexibility beyond short-duration batteries.

• Why the biggest barrier is not a lack of viable solutions, but market design; including the need to value resilience, reliability, capacity and other system benefits alongside energy arbitrage.

• Whether lithium-ion will remain dominant, how alternative technologies can complement it at longer durations, and why local materials and manufacturing could support more resilient supply chains.

What’s one thing you would like listeners to take away from this?

• Long duration energy storage is already operating at scale in a range of applications. The opportunity now is to create the policy, procurement and market signals that allow it to deliver the flexibility and security increasingly decarbonised power systems need.