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June 6, 2016

Mass. officials turn attention to energy storage

Renewable energy needs more than transmission lines backing it up.

Baker administration officials are high on the potential of energy storage, with the state's top energy resources official telling the News Service she sees it as a potential "game-changer."

"If we want to truly integrate renewables into helping us solve, and incorporating them into our electric grid when we actually really need them at times of peak, storage is going to be the key solution for us to do that, especially around solar," Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton told lawmakers on Thursday.

A Department of Energy Resources (DOER) report due out the coming days will serve as a "catalyst" for storage initiatives, including a $10 million pilot. DOER Commissioner Judith Judson told the News Service over the winter that demonstration projects are being planned.

"It really can be a game-changer," Judson said. "Electricity is really the only supply chain in the world where the project, electricity, has to be generated and consumed at the exact same time. If you have storage you can store the energy when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing and use it at times when it is not."

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