Still, battery makers hope to sidestep those challenges with the new breed of grid energy storage systems. Such systems must be huge, of course, to store the energy for utilities, but a growing number of companies believe they can make it happen.
A123 Systems, for example, offers a "containerized" grid storage system that incorporates 83,000 small cylindrical lithium-ion cells in a 53-foot-long trailer with an electronic controller built in. Known as a Grid Storage Solution (GSS), the A123 product produces 2Mw for a 15-minute duration (500kWh), enough to power about 500 homes. The company has placed the GSS with power producers in West Virginia, Chile, Hawaii, California, and the UK. Laurel Mountain Wind Farm in West Virginia employs 16 of the 2Mw units to store power from nearby turbines.
Similarly, French battery maker Saft is employing its containerized lithium-ion batteries to store energy for electric commuter trains in Philadelphia. The product, which serves a substation along the elevated railway, senses when the voltage in the train's third rail is too high, sucks the DC power out of the rail, and pushes it into a giant lithium-ion battery pack until it's needed. Using a well-known nickel-cobalt-aluminum chemistry, the battery offers about 1.5Mw of charge and discharge capability.
A123 Systems' Grid Storage Solution employs 83,000 cylindrical lithium-ion batteries, producing up to 2Mw for 15 minutes (500kWh).
One of the big advantages of Saft's system is that it can modulate loads in response to a signal from a grid operator. The result is more intelligent use of power for the utility. "So a megawatt of storage might displace a megawatt of fossil fuel generation," said Jim McDowall, business development manager for Saft.
Liquid batteries
Lithium-ion isn't the only solution, however. MIT-spinoff Liquid Metal Battery Corp. (LMBC), backed by Bill Gates, employs a liquid battery that's heated to between 400°C and 700°C. The essential components include a high-density liquid metal at the bottom of the cell, a molten salt electrolyte in the middle, and a low-density liquid metal above that. The two liquid layers serve as electrodes, while the molten salt acts like an electrolyte. The difference between the metals gives rise to the battery's voltage.
The advantage of LMBC's battery is that it can be made big and cheap, while offering high energy -- up to 2MWh. Although the company's executives won't say how much their battery costs now, they believe it could fill a major storage role if they can get its costs down to $100/kWh. "Our batteries will be big and we'll get economies of scale from that size," said LMBC CEO Phil Guidice. "And if we can provide cost-effective storage, we could have thousands of these being used by a single utility."
Bill Gates has been open about his reasons for supporting the startup. "Without (inexpensive storage), renewable energy resources like wind turbines and solar cells will never approach the scale or affordability that's necessary," he wrote in an article titled "We Need a Battery Miracle."
Thanks for a fantastically detailed and comprehensive article, Chuck! It stands to reason that the electricity grid will be wildly more efficient and economical when we have on-line storage within the distribution system. Just imagine how wasteful things would be if we did not have warehouses, stockrooms, and distribution centers for material goods, or reservoirs and tanks for water and petroleum storage. Even the use of capacitors within electronic circuits permit amazing systems to be designed.
This of course is not a new observation, but the technology required to realize efficient, large-scale electricity storage is new. Let's hope the promise of a new market with huge demand is enough to spur further development...
We are on the brink of a cataclysmic change as the whole world shifts from Petroleum to Electricity. There is a great abundance of opportunities, and needs, for new energy technologies. It feels like an overfilled water-balloon ready to burst. Efficient and dense energy storage is way overdue. At the pace we are transitioning to Electrical Energy I believe our motivation will evolve from convenience to survival. Then many solutions will quickly surface.
William, I want to second that. Actually, Chuck stole my thunder. Just last night at an IEEE Committee meeting we were discussing this as a topic for a future meeting.
I have implemented flywheels as a backup for a data center. They are smaller and more environmentally friendly (and safer) than standard batteries.
The biggest issues, beyond cost, are two fold. One is the conservative nature of the utility industry. The other is the investment model.
The utility industry makes their money by providing a reliable source. It is highly regulated and therefore conservative in its approach. Based on their incentives, that makes sense. That is why you have states having to pass laws requiring target percentages of renewables and, now, batteries.
The investment model has served us very well. Most utitilities are funded through long term bonds. The government role is to provide regulation, and sometimes support, but generally the investor owned utility is privately funded and provides a steady profit. Thus, there is a disincentive to take risks, since most infrastructure has to last a couple of decades to justify the investment.
The upshot is that battery technology, like renewables, has to be "proven" in long term operations before utilities will routinely install them. Since the technology is so new, this might make sense. Let's hope the investors in these technologies have a long term view as well.
Well stated, naperlou. I find it interesting that our heated discussions about solar, wind, hydro, biofuels, and fossil fuels are actually an argument over energy storage. Either collect the solar energy immediately, extract the energy from wind created by evaporating water, from condensed water, from short-term storage in living organisms, or extremely long-term storage in fossilized organisms in the form of petroleum and coal. So I guess our current debates have always been over our preferred energy capacitors...
The current technologies available for massive energy storage are not much better than a lake on a hill. With the growing needs for electricity, the limited capacities of these energy storage technologies are probably more suited for supplementing individual home alternative power systems. We need a major breakthrough in high density energy storage or an extremely efficient source of uninterrupted power. I don't think much will change until then.
While we may be hitting a wall on energy storage, the lake on the hill looks better and better. it's dependable, and once you've bought the land (which is a one-time expense), it's inexpensive.
Charles, renewal energy sources are common in universe and storage is a major concern, even from cell phones to smart grid technology. Most of the storage mechanisms can hold power for a shorter duration and forced us for a recharge. So there should be some new technologies which can hold more power and can sustain for a longer duration.
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