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A123 Systems is looking to combine many high tech batteries like those shown here into a megawatt battery. General Electric is a primary investor.  (Source: Martin LaMonica/CNET News.com)

VRB Power Systems has developed a vanadium-based flow battery system that can store hours of energy. The electrolyte flow-driven system is currently deployed on King Island, Australia.   (Source: VRB Power Systems)

The unique turbine from General Compression compresses air in the nacelle housing behind the blades and pumps it underground. It can be released to power an expander, creating energy. There is much interest in this design in the wind-heavy West.  (Source: General Compression)
New grid storage companies, good for the consumer, good for the utility, good for the environment

DailyTech recently covered Beacon Power's flywheel mechanical power storage system for grid leveling.  Grid leveling, an uncharted field is exploding in terms of interest, but much work remains to be done.


The promise is intriguing.  Current power in terms of infrastructure is crude – it’s a simple in-out system.  If power leveling technologies were modestly adopted it could make the power grid equivalent of RAM, able to handle varying demand without crashes (brownouts).  In time, serious power storage adoption could equate to long-term storage driving down prices during times of peak consumption or high commodity prices, similar to a hard drive, to use the computer analogy again.

Another key advantage of the technology is its ability to make wind and solar power technology -- variable sources -- make more sense from an economic standpoint fueled by the demand for continuous power.  These points were among the thoughts aired at a recent industry expert’s panel meeting for the New England Clean Energy Council.  The council, which is intimately knowledgeable with consumer power industry, says that power storage technologies have tremendous potential, but are held back by tech risks and expenses.

The council hopes that nonetheless the technologies will slowly be adopted.  This way "peak shaving", using stored energy to offset demand peaks during the day, can be employed as an alternative to having to build more power plants.  However, much work must be done to transform the grid to make such practices commonplace.

Says Ric Fulop, co-founder and vice president of business development at lithium-ion battery company A123 Systems, which is among the companies focusing on storage technologies, "Buying power at night and then selling it during the day--something like that will happen maybe in 30 or 40 years when storage technologies are one-tenth the costs they are today.  I think we will see a lot of deployments in the next few years that will change how the grid works.  Then we'll see utilities jump on the bandwagon."

Fulop has a dedicated team of over 100 engineers working on the problem.  While his business focuses primarily on power tool batteries and plug-in hybrid batteries, the grid storage division is growing.

The need for grid storage is becoming alarmingly clear.  In an area of Texas supplied mostly by wind power a Texas utility earlier this year had to cut customers off of power, according to Lawrence Gelbien, vice president of technology at utility NStar.  Says Gelbien, "If you could take the wind power, store it in batteries, and discharge when the wind starts again, then that's a fine application of storage."

Currently, the grid storage industry is valued at $2.4B USD per year and is growing 3.3 percent per year.  Key technologies include exotic battery chemistries, ultracapacitors, and flywheels.  However, all these technologies are mainly for storage time of less than an hour.  The long term storage market is even wider open and may use technologies as wild as "flow batteries" and compressed air storage.  A ten percent adoption of long term storage by wind power plants could generate a $50B USD market, according to analysts.

Compressed Air Energy Storeage (CAES) typically involves pumping air underground to store energy and later releasing it.  Currently two such plants are in operation, but many more companies are considering them.  General Compression is among the companies jumping on this trend.  Flow batteries, chemical vats with charge generated by chemical flows are currently being tested on the grid by other startups.  Finally many solar plants are already implementing long term chemical driven storage in the form of molten salt vats to allow nighttime generation.

While these technologies are all promising, they won't be adopted overnight.  Rather, they will likely creep into the market as their need increases and they mature.  It is exciting, though, to see so much enthusiasm and creativity in the field.

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It sounds good
By FITCamaro on 6/30/2008 9:21:29 AM , Rating: 5
Hopefully some strides will be made in this area. If we can use solar and wind as a charging mechanism for backup power, they'll be a little more useful. Right now their reliability is terrible compared to oil, coal, or nuclear. But if you can mass store the energy for a few days at a time, it'll make more sense to invest in them. Other than for the massive government subsidies that is.




RE: It sounds good
By Dribble on 6/30/08, Rating: -1
RE: It sounds good
By FITCamaro on 6/30/2008 10:14:09 AM , Rating: 2
Why are you repeating what I said?


RE: It sounds good
By wordsworm on 6/30/2008 10:52:32 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Why are you repeating what I said?


If you shout into a large, spherical, empty cavern, usually you get an echo. Try it with a cave. He's probably an MBA executive working somewhere.


RE: It sounds good
By Dribble on 7/1/2008 4:27:19 AM , Rating: 1
Reading > you

I didn't repeat what you said - you said use it for wind/solar. I said they are too unreliable (i.e. don't use it for wind/solar). Instead use it for nuclear/tidal which produce steady power 24-7.


RE: It sounds good
By 67STANG on 6/30/2008 1:12:38 PM , Rating: 2
Solar is unreliable? I'm not sure about you, but over my 28 year life span, I always expect the sun to be there when I wake up (although now it's after I wake up). We actually have down to the minute what time it will rise, and what time it will set. Even moderate cloud cover does little to drop power generation...

So you must really be taling about storms? In the case of storms wind is always present, generally blowing quite well. Thus turning wind turbines (which are generally constructed in places where vigorous wind studies have been completed).

It's true that both of these RENEWABLE energy methods have their limitations, reliability isn't one of them. Consistency is the word you should be using. Power Liquidity is another word you should be using.

Solar/Wind are installed with the intention of supplemental power generation. The corporations/governments that pay for these multi-billion dollar projects aren't expecting the Consistency or Power Liquidity of a nuclear power plant or a coal power plant. They are expecting to have supplemental power to meet peak demands of growing power demands-- without having to spend a lot more capital on a full-blown power plant.


RE: It sounds good
By masher2 (blog) on 6/30/2008 1:41:47 PM , Rating: 4
> "Even moderate cloud cover does little to drop power generation..."

Eh? Moderate cloud cover can cut power production by 50%. Late evening or early morning hours reduce it by even more than that. The upshot is that, even in the very best of locations like the Arizona desert, solar power has only about a 35-40% availability factor...in poor locations, it can run as low 25%.

> "The corporations/governments that pay for these multi-billion dollar projects aren't expecting the Consistency or Power Liquidity of a nuclear power plant or a coal power plant"

I wish you'd inform the environmentalist movement, which seems to believe we can meet all our power needs from wind and solar. Quite frankly, it isn't possible...not without a couple quantum leaps in technology.


RE: It sounds good
By redsquid5 on 6/30/2008 2:13:26 PM , Rating: 3
The beauty of Solar is the match between peak power produced and peak demand, particularly in the desert.
Cloud cover sufficient to reduce power production will also reduce demand for air conditioning in parallel.

I got involved in determining the optimum system size for an installation on a commercial facility in Santa Cruz county; turned out that it made sense to size the system to zero out consumption just for the peak midday hours, when the rate on the time-of-use meter is 4 times the lowest rate.
This area is prone to dense fogs, and we were afraid that would be an issue, but the reduction actually proved to be pretty minimal and the installation has gotten about 5% better power production than we and the installers had anticipated.


RE: It sounds good
By 67STANG on 6/30/2008 2:33:20 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Eh? Moderate cloud cover can cut power production by 50%. Late evening or early morning hours reduce it by even more than that. The upshot is that, even in the very best of locations like the Arizona desert, solar power has only about a 35-40% availability factor...in poor locations, it can run as low 25%.


I'm going to have to disagree. I worked with solar panels daily for nearly 4 years, all had remote monitoring equipment for temperature, voltage, remaining Ah, etc. These systems were installed up and down the entire state of California which has weather varying from very sunny, to very overcast.

We saw an average of 5-10% reduction in production in overcast conditions-- easily compensated with MPPT charge controller technology... The only real hit solar takes is dense fog, where production drops to about 15-20% of capability.

quote:
I wish you'd inform the environmentalist movement, which seems to believe we can meet all our power needs from wind and solar. Quite frankly, it isn't possible...not without a couple quantum leaps in technology.


I agree. It isn't possible, and lets be honest... some of the most outspoken environmentalists aren't the brightest bulbs in the hardware store... That said, it is nice have some diversity in energy production-- even if it doesn't pencil out completely compared to non-renewable options.


RE: It sounds good
By masher2 (blog) on 6/30/2008 2:55:55 PM , Rating: 2
> "I worked with solar panels daily for nearly 4 years, all had remote monitoring equipment for temperature, voltage, remaining Ah, etc."

I don't mean to be rude, but aren't you the same poster who, in a previous post discussing your experience with wind tech, confused a meters/s reading with miles/h, and wound up saying windmills could generate full power in an 11 mph breeze?

I don't want to doubt your word here, but there's nothing magical about solar panels. They work almost perfectly linear off the incident flux; if cloud cover reduces flux by 50%, power generation will drop by the same amount. Inescapable. Now, parts of California admittedly never see much cloud cover, but most other states aren't so lucky.

> We saw an average of 5-10% reduction in production in overcast conditions-- easily compensated with MPPT charge controller technology"

Well, if solar flux declines, the panel will produce less power. The only way a controller can "compensate" for this is if it wasn't adjusted optimally before hand. It can't produce power on its own, all it does is allow *less* losses during conversion.


RE: It sounds good
By 67STANG on 6/30/2008 5:47:39 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
I don't mean to be rude, but aren't you the same poster who, in a previous post discussing your experience with wind tech, confused a meters/s reading with miles/h, and wound up saying windmills could generate full power in an 11 mph breeze?


You're both right, and wrong. I am the poster that made that statement, however.. I didn't confuse meters with miles. As I am currently working with the wind industry, I have first hand experience analyzing real-time data from multiple wind farms. 11 mph brings the turbines to rated output... I'm sure your vast experience working with wind turbines heavily trumps mine, so I stand corrected...

quote:
but there's nothing magical about solar panels. They work almost perfectly linear off the incident flux; if cloud cover reduces flux by 50%, power generation will drop by the same amount


If that is true, and that's a big if, this would have to translate to very heavy, near fog cloud cover to be consistent with any solar panels I've worked with (Shell SQ80's, Sharp NE-80EJEA's and BP 380J's). Definately not magical, and definately available to anyone who has about $400 a pop...

quote:
Well, if solar flux declines, the panel will produce less power. The only way a controller can "compensate" for this is if it wasn't adjusted optimally before hand. It can't produce power on its own, all it does is allow *less* losses during conversion.


Hmmm, perhaps you should do some research before you post. Do you even know what an MPPT controller is, or how one works? Do you even know why they exist? I'll give you a hint, it has to do with temerpature, voltage and amperage...


RE: It sounds good
By masher2 (blog) on 6/30/2008 7:03:53 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
11 mph brings the turbines to rated output... I'm sure your vast experience working with wind turbines heavily trumps mine, so I stand corrected...
The links to actual manufacturer spec sheets trumps both of us...and they say 11 m/s (29 mph)

Now, if you have access to some newer turbine capable of running at much lower wind speeds than the rest of the industry, then by all means post its data here.

> " Do you even know what an MPPT controller is, or how one works?"

I know the laws of thermodynamics, and when a solar panel -- or any power source -- produces less power, only another power source can make up that shortfall. You can't create energy from nothing.

An "MPPT charge controller" is still just a fancy charge controller. It doesn't magically create power...it merely makes charging a battery more efficient.


RE: It sounds good
By 67STANG on 7/1/2008 1:19:25 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
Now, if you have access to some newer turbine capable of running at much lower wind speeds than the rest of the industry, then by all means post its data here.


As I've said before, I cannot do that. The exact output:windspeed ratio is a trade secret. The company I work with freespins their turbines past 25mph-- it's simply too fast for the low speed gearbox... Hard to believe they'd freespin before reaching rated output, right? And as I've told you before, you're looking old GE Wind turbine specs. GE isn't even the largest player in Wind... They bought their turbine technology from another company that is no longer in business....

quote:
An "MPPT charge controller" is still just a fancy charge controller. It doesn't magically create power...it merely makes charging a battery more efficient.


I'm not disputing the law of thermodynamics. But if you read the solar specs, you'd understand my argument... Especially with relation to cloud cover, which was in fact what we were talking about... not "energy from nothing".


RE: It sounds good
By masher2 (blog) on 7/1/2008 9:22:24 AM , Rating: 2
> "The exact output:windspeed ratio is a trade secret"

Sorry, I don't buy it. Performance isn't a trade secret; its crucial for determining just how much power the windmill will actually output. Who would buy a windmill if the maker said, "spend a few humdred million on our product please, but sorry -- we won't tell you how much electricity they'll generate".


RE: It sounds good
By 67STANG on 7/1/08, Rating: 0