For more than a century, electrical distribution has been simple: Electricity zips from the generating plant to a lightbulb or motor, providing instant power. It stops for no one. That, however, may be about to change.
With wind and solar power growing in popularity, "grid storage" has taken on greater meaning in the lexicon of utilities and power providers. Wind turbines and photovoltaic cells, it seems, need a backup if they're going to take their place as major energy suppliers. When the sun's not shining and the wind's not blowing, they need help. As a result, a new breed of technologies -- giant batteries and flywheels -- are emerging as a way to store the energy from the sun and wind for later use.
"You cannot balance large amounts of renewables without storage," Tim Hennessy, president of Prudent Energy, a maker of grid storage systems, said in an interview. "You need a shock absorber. That's just a fact." Indeed, the need for storage is growing more obvious. The State of California signed an energy storage bill into law in 2010. Utilities in other states around the US are increasingly employing the technology, as are energy producers in virtually every country in Europe.
Saft Energy's lithium-ion grid storage systems are being used to store power from the third rail from an electrified elevated train in Philadelphia.
"There's not a single utility that we reach out to where we can't get a senior-level meeting to discuss energy storage," Chris Campbell, vice president of business development and marketing for A123 Systems Inc., which makes grid storage batteries, told us. "They're convinced it's part of their future."
A recent study from Lux Research Inc. reinforces that position. "Grid Storage Under the Microscope: Using Local Knowledge to Forecast Global Demand" predicts the market for grid storage of electrical power will soar over the next five years, spiking from $2.8 billion in 2012 to, almost unbelievably, $113.5 billion in 2017.
"In most regions, intermittent renewables will need to have some type of storage or new infrastructure if they're ever going to reach huge numbers -- 10 percent or 20 percent or 30 percent of our overall power," Brian Warshay, lead author of the study, told us. "Storage helps mitigate the unpredictable nature of renewable energy resources."
Lithium-ion solutions
To be sure, the idea of grid storage isn't new. Utilities have long used "pumped hydro" and compressed air as a means of storing grid energy. In truth, such systems aren't storing electricity, per se. Instead, they're converting energy to another form -- pumping water up a hill, for example, and then letting it flow back down to spin generators when needed. But the percentage of power supplied by such systems has been puny, partially because of "siting challenges."
It sounds like this article is suggesting new technologies for the batteries. Atlhough I may have missed it here, a few months ago I thought there was a rather large development being planned to use old batteries for these types of applications - specifically, those that still have life but could no longer be used in hybrids.
I'am pleased that I've pointed you to a new aspect of pumped hydro. There is a really good presentation of the Gravity Power concept on YouTube. If you want to learn more about this concept than you should give it a try. Takes 51 minutes and has some Q&A at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CujxJFXwOns
Tom Mason, the CEO of Gravity Power has long experience in the energy sector and I've the feeling that he knows what he is talking about. Will be interesting what they learn from the planned small size pilot project.
Thanks for the link, Net Worker. This closed systemof pumped hydro is a new one one me. I've always seen it in terms of a lake on a hill. The closed system seems to have some real value.
Thanks for the links, DaveWR. That illuminates the challenges behind pumped hydro. It sill seems to have some virtues, in that rain can offset some of the evaporation, and there is value in recreational use.
DanielJoseph, your comment is very well said. A well designed small home power source should replace the water heater, providing heat, and hot/purified water as well. A lot of energy in the form of heat goes up the chimney from my gas water heater.
Is anyone working on using wind and solar to lift iron up a rachet belt to a tower. Hold it there as potential energy. Letting it compress air or liquid provides potential energy that can be converted to electrical energy as it's allowed to descend. Hmm, is any of the energy of a lowering elevator car saved for use in raising the car? Some hybrid automobiles save some of the braking energy in batteries.
I think that current battery grid storage solutions are very good to provide fast response to short term changes in load or demand and help to stabilize the grid in areas which are not very well connectet. But the batteries are still to expensive to provide hughe storage capacities needed for long term (days) storage.
I would like to point all hydro storage fans to the concept of pumped hydro without a lake. The company Gravity Power (http://www.gravitypower.net/index.aspx) has developed an underground storage with pumped hydro in a closed system which is modular and scales up to 600 MWh with 2400 MW peak power. Round trip efficiency is around 80%.
Second concept is developed in Germany by Eduard Heindl who proposed a pumped hydro storage which lift a huge rock mass with hydraulic pressure (200 bar) and potentially scales to 1 TWh capacity (http://lageenergiespeicher.de/en/hhs-storage.html)
Both concepts use existing pumped hydro technology and can be sited more easily than conventional hydro storage sites. Especially in Germany where some times more than 30% of electric energy is produced by PV and wind turbines, large scale storage will be required to keep the grid stable.
Yes, you can electrolyze water and then burn the hydrogen in an engine, but consider the round-trip efficiency. Electrolysis is only about 70% efficient, and the best binary cycle engines are close to 60% efficient. Multiplying these together gives you 42%. This doesn't include additional losses associated with compressing the hydrogen for storage. Thus for every 100 kWh of electricity you put in, you get back less than 42. Batteries and pumped storage, by comparison, have round-trip efficiencies of at least 80%.
We recently posted an online slideshow called, “18 People You Didn’t Know Were Engineers.” Within hours of its publication, readers began to suggest names of other luminaries -- astronauts, politicians, athletes and actors -- who were educated or had worked as engineers.
In yet another sign that hydrogen is creeping into the consciousness of global automotive designers, sports car maker Aston Martin plans to run a hydrogen-fueled vehicle in a 24-hour Grand Touring race later this month.
One of the ugly truths of engineering is that life has a price. Cars, buildings, power plants, and industrial machinery can always be made safer for a cost, but manufacturers are at the mercy of the market.
Front-seat television technology is beginning to creep into the worldwide automotive market, but regulators, automakers, and suppliers say it’s unlikely to take hold in the US.
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