The fastest-moving area of today’s energy sector can be summed up in one word: renewables.

It’s the area that is responsible for nearly all of the growth in today’s energy supply.

Economics is driving the switch to renewables. Building and operating a solar or wind farm is cheaper than operating an existing coal plant.

And the numbers get better every year.

The costs of solar, wind and battery storage are constantly improving.

And the renewable sector has created hundreds of thousands of high-wage, stable employment opportunities for blue-collar workers. The latest Clean Jobs America report counted almost 3.3 million Americans working in the clean energy field.

But there’s one problem…

Solar and wind power – the two fastest-growing renewable sources – aren’t always available. The sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow.

So how can these two sources be effectively added to what is already a fragile power grid?

Battery storage.

Storage Is Here to Stay

Over the last decade, advances in lithium-ion batteries have disrupted two big industries: transportation and energy storage.

For example, Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) uses the same batteries in both its electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

Additionally, utilities aren’t just replacing coal with solar and/or wind. They are increasingly adding battery storage into the mix.

Take Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK). It plans to invest at least $500 million in utility-scale battery storage projects over the next 15 years.

Xcel Energy (Nasdaq: XEL) is going in even bigger. It plans to spend $2.5 billion on wind, solar and 275 megawatts (MW) of storage.

And NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE) has plans to build a 409 MW energy storage project in Florida. It will be combined with a utility-scale solar project.

It’s obvious that energy storage has arrived and is here to stay.

You should consider making it part of your investment portfolio.

Good investing,

Dave