Decommissioned Audi EV Batteries Used In 4.5MWh Stationary Energy Storage System In Germany
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
These are the first two paragraphs of the article.
Used lithium-ion batteries taken from carmaker Audi’s electric vehicles (EVs) have been repurposed into a ‘second-life’ stationary energy storage system by energy company RWE at a project in Herdecke, Germany.
RWE has deployed the system, which has a capacity of around 4.5MWh, at the site of its pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) plant at Hengsteysee reservoir in the North-Rhine Westphalia region of north-west Germany.
The Hengsteysee looks to be a well-designed reservoir, as it provides four functions.
- Functions as the lower reservoir of the Koepchenwerk pumped-storage plant
- Performs biological purification of water from the Lenne
- Deposit of sediment from the Lenne
- Venue for water sports and tourism
This Google Map shows the Hengsteysee.
More details of the Koepchenwerk pumped-storage plant is given on this page on Power Technology.
- It has a generating capacity of 153 MW.
- The gross head is 145.5 metres.
- The storage capacity is around 0.6 GWh.
It is not the largest of pumped-storage plants, but Germany seems to have a lot of smaller ones like this and in total they have more than we do.
What Happens When The Wind Doesn’t Blow?
In Future Offshore Wind Power Capacity In The UK, I analysed future offshore wind power development in the waters around the UK and came to this conclusion.
It looks like we’ll be able to reap the wind. And possibly 50 GW of it!
The unpredictable nature of wind and solar power means that it needs to be backed up with storage or some other method.
In The Power Of Solar With A Large Battery, I describe how a Highview Power CRYObattery with a capacity of 500 MWh is used to back up a large solar power station in the Atacama desert in Chile.
But to backup 50 GW is going to need a lot of energy storage.
The largest energy storage system in the UK is Electric Mountain or Dinorwig power station in Wales.
- It has an output of 1.8 GW, which means that we’d need up to nearly thirty Electric Mountains to replace the 50 GW.
- It has a storage capacity of 9.1 GWh, so at 1.8 GW, it can provide that output for five hours.
- To make matters worse, Electric Mountain cost £425 million in 1974, which would be over £4 billion today, if you could fine a place to build one.
But it is not as bad as it looks.
- Battery technology is improving all the time and so is the modelling of power networks.
- We are now seeing large numbers of lithium-ion batteries being added to the UK power network to improve the quality of the network.
- The first Highview Power CRYObattery with an output of 50 MW and a capacity of 250 MWh is being built at Carrington in Manchester.
- If this full size trial is successful, I could see dozens of CRYOBatteries being installed at weak points in the UK power network.
- Other battery technology is being developed, that might be suitable for application in the UK.
Put this all together and I suspect that it will be possible to cover on days where the wind doesn’t blow.
But it certainly will need a lot of energy storage.
Gas-Fired Power Stations As A Back Up To Renewable Power
Last summer when the wind didn’t blow, gas-fired power stations were started up to fill the gap in the electricity needed.
Gas-fired power-stations normally use gas turbines similar to those used in airliners, which have a very fast startup response, so power can be increased quickly.
If you look at the specification of proposed gas-fired power stations like Keadby2, they have two features not found in current stations.
- The ability to be fitted in the future with carbon-capture technology.
- The ability to be fuelled by hydrogen.
Both features would allow a gas-fired power-station to generate power in a zero-carbon mode.
Carbon Capture And Storage
I am not in favour of Carbon Capture And Storage, as I believe Carbon Capture and Use is much better and increasingly engineers, researchers and technologists are finding ways of using carbon-dioxide.
- Feeding to tomatoes, salad vegetables, soft fruits and flowers in greenhouses.
- Producing meat substitutes like Quorn.
- Producing sustainable aviation fuel.
- An Australian company called Mineral Decarbonation International can convert carbon dioxide into building products like blocks and plasterboard.
This list will grow.
Using or storing the carbon-dioxide produced from a gas-fired power station running on natural gas, will allow the fuel to be used, as a backup, when the wind isn’t blowing.
Use Of Hydrogen
Hydrogen will have the following core uses in the future.
- Steelmaking
- Smelting of metal ores like copper and zinc
- As a chemical feedstock
- Natural gas replacement in the mains.
- Transport
Note that the first four uses could need large quantities of hydrogen, so they would probably need an extensive storage system, so that all users had good access to the hydrogen.
If we assume that the hydrogen is green and probably produced by electrolysis, the obvious place to store it would be in a redundant gas field that is convenient. Hence my belief of placing the electrolyser offshore on perhaps a redundant gas platform.
If there is high hydrogen availability, then using a gas-fired power-station running on hydrogen, is an ideal way to make up the shortfall in power caused by the low wind.
Conclusion
Batteries and gas-fired power stations can handle the shortfall in power.
Future Offshore Wind Power Capacity In The UK
I am building this table, so that I can get a feel for the electricity needs of the UK.
According to Wikipedia, on February 2020, there were thirty six offshore wind farms consisting of 2180 turbines with a combined capacity of 8113 megawatts or 8.113 gigawatts.
Currently, these offshore wind farms are under construction, proposed or are in an exploratory phase.
- Triton Knoll – 857 MW – 2021 – Under Construction
- Hornsea Two – 1386 MW – 2022 – Under Construction
- Moray East – 960 MW – 2022 – Under Construction
- Neart Na Gaoithe – 450 MW – 2023 – Under Construction
- Seagreen Phase 1 – 1075 MW – 2023 – Under Construction
- Dogger Bank A – 1200 MW – 2023/24 – Proposed
- Dogger Bank B – 1200 MW – 2024/25 – Proposed
- Dogger Bank C – 1200 MW – 2024/25 – Proposed
- Moray West – 1200 MW – 2024/25 – Exploratory
- Hornsea Three – 2400 MW – 2025 – Proposed
- East Anglia One North 800 MW – 2026 – Exploratory
- East Anglia Two – 900 MW – 2026 – Exploratory
- East Anglia Three – 1400 MW – 2026 – Exploratory
- Sofia Offshore Wind Farm Phase 1 – 1400 MW – 2023/2026 – Under Construction
- Hornsea Four – 1000 MW (?) – 2027 – Exploratory
- Rampion Two Extension – 1200 MW – Exploratory
- Norfolk Vanguard – 1800 MW – Exploratory
- Norfolk Boreas – 1800 MW – Exploratory
Note.
- The date is the possible final commissioning date.
- I have no commissioning dates for the last three wind farms.
- Wikipedia says that the Hornsea Four capacity is unknown by Ørsted due to the ever increasing size of available wind turbines for the project.
I can total up these wind farms by commissioning date.
- 2021 – 857 MW
- 2022 – 2346 MW
- 2023 – 1525 MW
- 2024 – 1200 MW
- 2025 – 6000 MW
- 2026 – 4500 MW
- Others – 5800 MW
I can draw these conclusions.
- Total wind farm capacity commissioned each year is increasing.
- It looks like there will be a capacity to install up to 5000 or 6000 MW every year from about 2025.
- If we add my figures for 2021-2026 to the 8113 MW currently installed we get 24541 MW.
- Adding in 6000 MW for each of the four years from 2027-2030 gives a total of 48541 MW or 48.5 GW.
As I write this on a Sunday afternoon, wind power (onshore and offshore) is supplying 13 GW or forty-four percent of our electricity needs.
I have further thoughts.
Parallels With North Sea Oil And Gas
I was very much involved in the development of North Sea oil and gas, as my software was used on a large number of the projects. I had many discussions with those managing these projects and what was crucial in shortening project times was the increasing availability of bigger rigs, platforms and equipment.
Big certainly was better.
I believe that as we get more experienced, we’ll see bigger and better equipment speeding the building of offshore wind farms.
Reuse of Redundant North Sea Oil And Gas Platforms
Don’t underestimate the ability of engineers to repurpose redundant oil and gas platforms for use with windfarms.
Electrolysers on the platforms can convert the electricity into hydrogen and use redundant gas pipes to bring it ashore.
Some processes like steelmaking could use a lot of hydrogen.
Platforms can be used as sub-stations to collect electricity from windfarms and distribute it to the various countries around the North Sea.
Hydrogen
Some processes like steelmaking could use a lot of hydrogen. And I don’t think steelmakers would be happy, if the supply was intermittent.
So why not produce it with giant electrolysers on redundant oil and gas platforms and store it in redundant gas fields under the sea?
A large store of hydrogen under the sea could have the following uses.
- Steelmaking.
- Feedstock for chemical manufacture.
- Transport
- Power generation in a gas-fired power station, that can run on hydrogen.
It would just need a large enough hydrogen store.
Energy Storage
This large amount of wind power will need a large amount of energy storage to cover for when the wind doesn’t blow.
Some of this storage may even be provided by using hydrogen, as I indicated previously.
But ideas for energy storage are coming thick and fast.
The North Sea Link To Norway
The North Sea Link is much more important than an interconnector between Blyth in Northumberland and Norway.
- At the Norwegian end the link is connected to a vast pumped storage energy system in the mountains of Norway.
- This pumped storage system is filled in two ways; Norwegian rain and snow and UK wind power through the interconnector.
- In times of need, we can draw electricity through the interconnector from Norway.
- It has a capacity of 1.4 GW.
- It was delivered on time for a cost of around €2 billion.
It can almost be thought of as an international bank of electricity and is probably one of the most significant pieces of European infrastructure built in recent years.
There are also plans to build NorthConnect, that would connect Peterhead in Scotland to Norway.
Conclusion
It looks like we’ll be able to reap the wind. And possibly 50 GW of it!
Rolls-Royce Makes Duisburg Container Terminal Climate Neutral With MTU Hydrogen Technology
The title of this post, is the same as this press release from Rolls-Royce.
This is the first sentence.
Rolls-Royce will ensure a climate-neutral energy supply at the container terminal currently under construction at the Port of Duisburg, Germany.
There is also this Rolls-Royce graphic, which shows the energy sources.
It would appear batteries, combined heat and power (CHP), grid electricity, hydrogen electrolyser, hydrogen storage and renewable electricity are being brought together to create a climate-neutral energy system.
- As the graphic was named hydrogen technology for ports, I would assume that this is a Rolls-Royce mtu system that will be deployed at more than one port around the world.
- Note the H2 CHPs in the graphic. Could these be applications for Rolls-Royce’s beer keg-sized 2.5 MW electrical generator based on a Super Hercules engine?
- One of Rolls-Royce’s small modular nuclear reactors could be ideal for a large port outside Germany.
This is the last paragraph of the press release.
“Hydrogen technology is no longer a dream of the future, but hydrogen technology will prove itself in everyday use in Duisburg. The parallel use of fuel cell solutions and hydrogen engines shows that we have taken the right path with our technology-open approach to the development of new solutions for the energy supply of the future,” says Andreas Schell, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems.
Rolls-Royce mtu appear to be very serious about the possibilities of hydrogen.
Aceleron Secures Over £927k In Government Funding For Circular Battery Storage Project
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Current News.
These two paragraphs define their project.
Lithium-ion battery developer Aceleron has been granted £927,426 in government funding to help develop its Project BATLAB.
The project will look to develop a more sustainable, circular build process for batteries in the UK market, with the goal of ensuring everything needed within the life cycle of the battery will be available in the same environment from first life to repurposing.
They are aiming to repurpose vehicle batteries and it appears University College London is involved.
I believe that given average luck, this venture could be a success.
- They have government funding.
- They have backing for a respected university.
- One of the partners is Aspire Engineering.
There will be masses of batteries to repurpose and lots of applications for them.
When Will Energy Storage Funds Take The Leap To New Technology?
This article on the Motley Fool is entitled 3 UK Dividend Shares To Buy Yielding 6%.
This is a paragraph from the article.
The first company on my list is the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LSE: GSF). With a dividend yield of just over 6%, at the time of writing, I think this company looks incredibly attractive as an income investment. It is also an excellent way for me to build exposure to the green energy industry.
Just as everybody has a fridge in their house to stop food being wasted, electricity networks with a lot of intermittent resources like wind and solar, needs a device to store electricity, so that it isn’t wasted.
Gore Street Energy Storage Fund is being very safe and conservative at the current time, often using batteries from one of Elon Musk’s companies.
You can’t fault that, but they are only barely making a dent in the amount of batteries that will be needed.
If we are generating tens of GW of wind energy, then we need batteries at the GWh level, whereas at the moment a typical battery in Gore Street’s portfolio has only an output of a few megawatts. They don’t state the capacity in MWh.
There is this statement on their web site, about the technology they use.
Although the projects comprising the Seed Portfolio utilise lithium-ion batteries and much of the pipeline of investments identified by the Company are also expected to utilise lithium-ion batteries, the Company is generally agnostic about which technology it utilises in its energy storage projects. The Company does not presently see any energy storage technology which is a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries. However, there are a number of technologies which are being researched which if successfully commercialised, could prove over time more favourable and the Company will closely monitor such developing technologies.
They say they are agnostic about technology and are looking around, but they are sticking with lithium-ion technology.
That technology works, is safe and gives a good return.
But they are at least thinking about moving to new technology.
In the rail industry, it is common for rail leasing companies to get together with train manufacturers or remanufacturers to develop new trains.
As an example, Eversholt Rail and Alstom formed a partnership to develop a hydrogen-powered train for the UK, which I wrote about in Alstom And Eversholt Rail Sign An Agreement For The UK’s First Ever Brand-New Hydrogen Train Fleet.
Worldwide, there are probably upwards of a dozen very promising energy storage technologies, so I am very surprised that energy storage funds, like Gore Street and Gresham House have not announced any development deals.
Conclusion
Energy storage funds could benefit from using some of the financing methods used by rolling stock leasing companies.
Virtual Power Plants: Enphase, Sunverge And LG In The US, Project Symphony In Australia
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
The article is a good introduction to the concept of a virtual power plant. The Wikipedia entry starts with this definition.
A virtual power plant (VPP) is a cloud-based distributed power plant that aggregates the capacities of heterogeneous distributed energy resources (DER) for the purposes of enhancing power generation, as well as trading or selling power on the electricity market.
It can almost be thought of as an energy equivalent of the Internet.
As a Control Engineer, I believe that the creation of virtual power plants will be very important in the future.
Read the article and the Wikipedia entry and see if you agree.
EMEC And Gravitricity Pick Up Scottish Green Energy Awards
The title of this post, is the same as this article on renews.biz.
These are the first two paragraphs.
The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), energy storage innovator Gravitricity and Crown Estate Scotland were among the winners announced last night at the Scottish Green Energy Awards in Edinburgh.
EMEC won the Champion of Renewables award for its ocean energy test facility, while Gravitricity’s energy storage system, which uses excess electricity to winch weights to charge the system and then releases these when energy is required, was announced as the Best Innovation winner.
I am pleased, as I own a small part of Gravitricity, which I contributed through crowdfunding.
Energy Dome Secures Funding, Partner For New CO2 Energy Storage Projects
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now.
This is the first paragraph.
Energy Dome SpA announced on Tuesday that it has closed a funding round securing USD 11 million (EUR 9.7m) to finalise the construction of a demonstration 2.5-MW/4-MWh carbon dioxide (CO2) battery storage project in Sardinia and to speed up business growth.
Note.
- It appears that Energy Dome has weaponised carbon dioxide against climate change.
- Providing 2.5 MW for over an hour and a half is an impressive performance.
- I think this project has the style we associate with Italy and Italians.
I have found their website at energydome.com and behind their energy storage system is unusual technology.
Their web site says this about their choice of storage medium.
CO2 is the perfect fluid to store energy cost effectively in a closed thermodynamic process as it is one of the few gases that can be condensed and stored as a liquid under pressure at ambient temperature. This allows for high density energy storage without the need to go at extreme cryogenic temperatures.
That is breathtakingly simple!
The main tank for the gaseous carbon dioxide is an inflatable dome and the liquid carbon dioxide is stored in steel tanks.
A turbine -compressor moves the carbon dioxide between gaseous and liquid states storing it appropriately.
It is very impressive! And I suspect extremely affordable!
1.5GW Of Irish PV To Receive Grid Connection Offers Through ECP Process
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Solar Power Portal.
Note.
- There are 85 projects in total.
- Several also involve energy storage
- Gresham House and Gore Street Energy Storage Funds are involved.
It all seems to be happening in Ireland.
The Anonymous Widower 