Making Renewable Energy Efficient with Most Promising Long Duration Storage Solutions
Published on : Thursday 09-04-2020
The global energy ecosystem is now taking significant moves towards a renewables-centred environment, along with various forms of clean and green energy. However, to supply energy over demand requires maximum durations of storage capacity within energy infrastructure. In this way, long-duration energy storage technologies carry out great potential, since wind and solar power lead new power plant accompaniments and increasingly surpass other sources of electricity.
Unlike the stationary energy storage industry that primarily focused on short duration energy storage applications and grid services, long duration energy storage systems are essential for an electricity system to transition from a primary dependency on traditional fossil fuel generation to a grid powered by variable renewable generation such as solar and wind.
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity, a type of hydroelectric energy storage, is one such long duration storage solution used by electric power systems for load balancing. It works on the concept of upper reservoir where water is stored when power from the plan is needed; intake tunnel where the water rushes down; turbines that are underground at the base of a dam and is propelled by the force of water which then produce electricity; discharge tunnel through which the water then flows into a lower reservoir; and recharging, when demand for electricity is low, the turbines spin backward and pump the water back up into the upper reservoir to make it available to generate electricity when it's needed.
Flow batteries that allow storage of the active materials external to the battery. The emergence of flow batteries is primarily caused by the growth of wind and solar power. This type of batteries use tanks of electrolytes capable of storing enough electricity to power thousands of homes for many hours. But most flow batteries rely on vanadium, which is an expensive metal, and alternatives are short-lived and toxic. A flow battery is one in which two liquids, divided by a membrane and circulated to enable ion exchange between them. The batteries, by isolating the liquid electrolytes, provide a long cycle life and can make use of their complete discharge range.
Sodium sulphur batteries that are high-temperature batteries, operating at 300°C and using a solid electrolyte. These batteries have a high energy density, high efficiency of charge or discharge and long cycle life, and are erected from inexpensive materials. Sodium-sulfur battery operates on the principle of a reversible redox reaction between sodium and sulfur. These kinds of batteries have already been used in countries like Japan. Sodium battery requires the installed capacity of about 250 MW.
So, energy storage has now become an integral element of grid planning and energy network management. Rapid advances in technology, proven capabilities and reduction in prices are the major factors driving long duration storage technologies within energy space. And we believe as storage goes mainstream, the development of these kinds of energy systems will rise that will make it easier to shift towards renewable energy.