Zinc-air is a well-suited chemistry for microgrids, providing a cheap energy storage solution. Flow batteries struggle to scale down to the size of a typical microgrid, and lithium-ion batteries do not compete on cost.

As the cost of renewable technologies has steadily declined, and the value of distributed energy resources (DERs) are better recognized, regulated, and understood, connected microgrids are becoming increasingly lower carbon while operating a myriad of different resources.

With an increasing emphasis on reliability, distributed generation (DG) and energy storage (ES) technologies are logical solutions to ensure the continuous operation of telecom networks, regardless of location or external factors.

Greater renewable penetration on the grid means longer duration storage is necessary to start to combat some of the issues that are caused by non-dispatchable generation assets.