Energy Storage

Articles about storing energy for later use, including batteries, pumped hydro, thermal storage, hydrogen, and other technologies that help balance energy supply and demand.

What is energy arbitrage? Buying electricity when nobody wants it

Energy arbitrage featured image showing batteries moving cheap daytime electricity toward a higher-value nighttime market.

Electricity can be worth €20/MWh at noon and €150/MWh a few hours later. Energy arbitrage turns that difference into a business model: buy or store electricity when it is cheap, then sell it when it becomes valuable. The idea sounds suspiciously like “buy low, sell high.” It is. The interesting part is what batteries, efficiency losses, degradation, forecasts, negative prices, and thousands of competing batteries do to that beautifully simple plan.