Large-scale energy storage, which is especially useful for incorporating significant amounts of variable solar- and wind-generated electricity into utility grid systems, is becoming a hot topic.
Projects in several states are examining a variety of energy storage technologies under development by private companies. Among them are:
- In New York state, Beacon Power Co. is developing a 20-megawatt project that uses flywheel technology to store electricity.
- In Minnesota, the company Xcel Energy has reported success with a 1-megawatt battery storage system it is testing.
- In Wisconsin, President Obama recently visited a small company called ZBB Energy that plans to add workers as it develops large-format batteries that the company says will allow inexpensive, cost-effective storage of solar and wind energy.
- In California, the mayor of Los Angeles recently announced that the city's municipal utility would work with one of China's largest companies, BYD, to develop a 5- to 10-megawatt renewable-energy storage station in the mountains about 100 miles north of the city.
Throughout the country, as utilities increasingly offer time-of-use rates, owners of residential or business solar photovoltaic systems may be able to take advantage of a similar approach by producing more electricity than they use at high-priced peak times and limiting most of their own usage to lower-priced off-peak hours. Similarly advantageous time-based pricing plans may be available to owners of plug-in vehicles.
The California Public Utilities Commission sees large-scale energy storage as a possible alternative to building more generation capacity to meet peak demand, Mr. Nelson adds, and the CPUC oversees Self-Generation Incentive Program grant funding for installations associated with fuel cells.
Also exploring renewable-energy storage is Los Angeles, which recently announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a giant battery storage station for electricity generated from wind and solar resources.
The agreement "is an important step forward in building technology that does not even exist yet that will revolutionize how utilities across the country store their renewable energy," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.
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The problem of energy storage is as ancient as fat in carnivorous fishes, and its solutions became particularly valuable when oceanic predators could eat during the day and hunt during the night.
Because of this, we think of energy storage in small sizes, the greatest being only the whale. Japan might be very interested in water recycling at hydroelectric dams by the intermittent wind and solar energy.
Water recycling at dams is a way to store the intermittent energy from wind and photovoltaic installations by pumping water from the downstream side of existing hydroelectric dams, to the upstream side.
This makes use of existing turbines which are already well mated to existing energy storing river differential.
On the other hand, hydroelectric production capacity from natural river flow alone may have been outgrown by local population and use increases.
This use of the hydroelectric installation does not, of course, subtract from the energy provided by the dam. On the other hand, and still on the plus side, it does store (though with pumping losses) all of the available intermittent energy from wind and photovoltaic.
It may be more useful in some places than others, depending on the steepness and volume of the river flow, the available lake volume, and so forth.
Yet it can be implemented at any existing hydroelectric dam.
Even if the solar or wind installations are not immediately near the hydroelectric system, their energy can be conveyed to the pumps near the dams by transmission lines.
Uphill pumps must be efficient, fast and minimize energy losses, although this kind of pumping is already fairly well understood. They would be tailored to the particular hydroelectric dam; some might pump large volumes up short heights, others may pump smaller volumes up greater heights.
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