Alternative Energy Storage Technologies To Challenge Electrochemistry
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Battery and Energy Storage Magazine.
It gives a good summary of two energy storage system; Highview Power and Gravitricity, that I rate highly promising.
It also gives details of a Danish system called Stiesdal Storage Technologies, which is developing a hot rocks energy storage system.
The article says this about the system.
The pumped-heat ESS uses pea-sized crushed basalt, rock in insulated steel tanks with the stored energy released by turbine.
SST CEO Peder Riis Nickelsen said: “The cost of crushed stone is at a totally different level per unit of energy than practically any other material for energy storage. Our charging and discharging system can utilise well-known technologies that have been applied for a century within other industries and are well-suited for mass production.”
The cost of materials is estimated to be €10 ($12) per kWh.
The first demonstration project, a 1-2MW, 24h capacity unit, will be installed at a power plant in Denmark next year, and will operate commercially.
This page on the Striesdal web site, explains the technology.
It sounds like the system uses very similar principles to Siemens Gamesa ETES, with a different heat storage medium.
Conclusion
At my last count, there now appears to be upwards of half-a-dozen viable alternatives to chemical batteries and traditional pumped storage. Some of the technologies are also backed, by large companies, organisations and countries, who can afford to take a long-term view.
I hope those, who claim that renewables will never power the world, have at least got the recipe for the cooking of humble pie ready.
Gigawatt-Scale Compressed Air: World’s Largest Non-Hydro Energy-Storage Projects Announced
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Recharge.
This is the opening paragraph.
The two 500MW/5GWh ‘advanced’ compressed-air projects in California would each be bigger than the current record holder.
They are certainly not small. On the Electric Mountain scale of energy storage, they are both 55 %.
Both appear to be from Canadian company; Hydrostor and will be built in California.
This explanatory video is from the company.
It appears to be a rather elegant solution.
Like Highview Power, the system appears to be based on proven process technology, is zero-carbon, can be built almost anywhere and doesn’t require large amounts of land.
Hydrostor is definitely one to watch.
My only worry about both Hydrostor and Highview systems, is that countries, who don’t recognise patents and design copyrights could develop other systems based on similar physical principles.
The Anonymous Widower 