Gore Street Contracts NEC For 100 MW Of Storage
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the Solar Power Portal.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Gore Street Energy Storage Fund has awarded NEC Energy Solutions both EPC and long-term O&M contracts for 100MW of storage in Northern Ireland.
What I find most comforting, is the matter-of-fact tone of the article.
Although, the author does seem to think that MW and MWh are the same, when in fact MW is used to define the rate of energy used or transferred and MWh the quantity.
If you use one MW for an hour, that is one MWh.
Gore Street appear to have needed two 50 MW energy storage systems for Drumkee and Mullavilly in Northern Ireland to back up a solar farm investment.
And they appear to have just ordered them off the shelf from NEC, in much the way, an individual might buy a Tesla Powerwall for their house.
According to this article on OVO Energy, the average European house uses 3,600 kWh per year.As there are 8760 hours in a year, the average consumption for a year is 0.4 kW per hour.
So if we assume that these two energy storage systems can deliver 50 MW for an hour, the following can be said.
- The total capacity of each system is 50 MWh.
- Each system can supply 125,000 houses for an hour or 25,000 houses for five hours.
- As each housing unit has an average occupancy of 2.66 people, this means that a 50 MWh battery could supply a town of 66,500 people, for five hours.
Note that Lowestoft in Suffolk has a population of 71,000.
These batteries are not small.
Energy Storage 2020: It’s Not Just About Lithium-Ion Batteries Any More
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Clean Technica.
The article is a must-read, as it surveys the various techniques being developed to store energy.
This is the last paragraph of the article.
The one thing we can take away from all this experimentation is that energy storage will be more affordable in the future, and that’s a very good thing for a world suffering heat exhaustion from traditional thermal generation strategies.
I agree!
Are The British Going To Rescue Vermont?
This article on the Scientific American is entitled To Store Renewable Energy, Try Freezing Air.
This is the sub-title of the article.
Such energy storage technology could help relieve congested transmission lines in places like Vermont.
It certainly is a must read, about the possibilities of energy storage and Highview Power in particular.
What Is A Pimby?
We all know that a Nimby (Not In My Back Yard!) doesn’t want fracking, a nuclear power station or a new railway to be built or something similar near to where they live.
But I believe, we could see the rise of a new type of protestor – the Pimby or a Please In My Back Yard!
I was reading this article on CleanTechnica, which is entitled Coal-Killing Long-Duration Energy Storage For Vermont (Vermont?!?).
The article is about Highview Power’s planned energy storage facility in Vermont, which I wrote about in Encore Joins Highview To Co-Develop Liquid Air Energy Storage System In Vermont.
This paragraph is from Highview.
“Unlike competing long-duration technologies, such as pumped hydro-power or compressed air, Highview Power’s CRYOBattery™ can be sited just about anywhere. The CRYOBattery has a small footprint, even at multiple gigawatt-levels, and does not use hazardous materials.”
You could imagine a community, , perhaps miles away from the nearest power station, where jobs and economic prospects are being held back by a dodgy power supply.
So the community might start to protest not about building perhaps a gas-fired station to satisfy their electricity needs, but in favour of a Highview Power system and some renewable wind or solar power.
Pimbys might also protest in favour of a new railway station or electrification of their branch line. Providing the power for the latter would be a good use for a Highview system.
Encore Joins Highview To Co-Develop Liquid Air Energy Storage System In Vermont
The title of this post is the same as that as this article on Vermont Biz.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Northern Vermont facility will help put more renewable energy on the region’s electric grid, establish first such facility in United States
According to the article, the planned system will be able to supply 50 MW for eight hours and store up to 400 MWH of electricity.
I do think that Highview Power could have a very viable solution to storing energy.
- The system is based on well-proven process technology, that Lord Kelvin would have understood.
- No exotic or difficult to obtain materials are needed.
- In the future, I believe systems of over a a GWh will be possible.
It is the best idea, I’ve seen, that could be the Holy Grail of energy storage.
Gates, Bezos Bet On Flow Battery Technology, A Potential Rival To Big Bets On Lithium-Ion
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on CNBC.
This is the first paragraph.
The U.S. energy storage market is expected to grow by a factor of 12 in the next five years, from 430MW deployed in 2019 to more than 5GW and a value of more than $5 billion by 2024, says Wood Mackenzie Energy Storage Service.
Those are big numbers and it makes me ask the question of whether Planet Earth has enough lithium.
The title of the article says that Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are looking at flow battery technology, as a possibly alternative to lithium-ion batteries.
What Is Flow Battery Technology?
This is the first sentence of the Wikipedia entry for flow battery.
A flow battery, or redox flow battery (after reduction–oxidation), is a type of electrochemical cell where chemical energy is provided by two chemical components dissolved in liquids contained within the system and separated by a membrane.
Wikipedia’s explanation is comprehensive.
- There are seven different types.
- There are around twenty different chemistries.
- They have various advantages and disadvantages.
- They seem to be less efficient than lithium-ion batteries.
Applications include; load balancing, uninterruptible power supplies, power conversion, electric vehicles and standalone power supplies.
It looks like they are a lithium-ion replacement.
Conclusion
This technology is one to watch.
With all those types and chemistries someone could strike extremely lucky!
Highview Power To Build Europe’s Largest Battery Storage System
The title of this post is the same as that as this article on The Chemical Engineer.
This is the first two paragraphs.
HighView Power, the designer and developer of the CRYOBattery, is to build what it claims will be Europe’s largest battery storage system, in the North of England. The project will also be the UK’s first commercial cryogenic energy storage facility at large scale.
The 50 MW/250 MWh clean energy storage facility could help the UK to achieve its goal of decarbonising industry, heat, power, and transport, as CRYOBattery emits zero emissions and could dramatically contribute to emissions savings compared to fossil fuel plants.
I spent long hours in my past modelling chemical plants and processes for ICI and my experience tells me, that this could be the Holy Grail of energy storage.
Consider.
- All of the technology needed is proven and much would have been understood, by Victorian collossi like Brunel, Kelvin and Reynolds.
- There are no expensive rare earths, chemicals or explosive gases.
- The system is scalable.
- There is no combustion and no emissions.
- The system can be built on any suitable site, thus opening up the possibility of distributed energy storage.
- Once the technology is working, this type of system, will be an ideal investment for a Pension Fund or Insurance Company, to get a good long-term return
I can see systems able to store a GWh of electricity being built, that can supply 200 MW of power for five hours.
I also feel non-battery storage like this and mechanical will make chemical batteries redundant for mass energy storage for grid applications.
After all, there’s only so much lithium and other important chemicals and that will be needed for energy storage in transport, like buses, trains and planes.
The Amount Of Energy Storage Needed In The UK
This is also a paragraph from the article.
According to early findings of the Storage and Flexibility Model (SFM) launched by the Energy Systems Catapult (ESC), to achieve an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels by 2050 the UK would need nearly 1,400 GWh of electric and thermal storage volume.
1,400 GWh of electricity storage is a very large amount. It would probably need a large proportion of all the lithium in the world, if conventional batteries were used. Highview will need none.
When you consider that the largest energy storage facility in the UK is Electric Mountain, which can only handle 9.1 GWh, building the 1,400 GWh of energy storage will be a massive undertaking.
But building perhaps a hundred or two of larger versions of this type of system and distributing them all over the UK might be a very practical way of providing the energy storage.
Provided the UK economy is good with a healthy City of London, these systems should be easy to fund, as they are the sort of investment, that provides an adequate long-term return, that is ideal to fund pensions and insurance.
BlackRock Renewables Fund Hits USD 1bn In 1st Close
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now.
Wikipedia says this about BlackRock.
BlackRock is one of the world’s largest asset managers with $6.84 trillion in assets under management as of August 2019.
The company has been very successful over the years and although there have been controversies about their investments in fossil fuels, their move into renewables and energy storage must be significant.
If you are managing money for organisations like pension funds and insurance companies, you must be prudent, as otherwise little pensioners and the insured won’t get paid.
The Power Of Battery Storage
This article on Fastmarkets is entitled Neoen To Expand Li-ion Battery Capacity at Hornsdale Plant.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Australia’s Hornsdale Power Reserve, the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery plant, is set to expand capacity by 50% to 150 megawatts, according to Neoen SA, the French power producer that owns and operates the site.
If you read the article and the Wikipedia entry for Hornsdale Power Reserve (HPR), you’ll see why it is being expanded.
This paragraph is from Wikipedia.
After six months of operation, the Hornsdale Power Reserve was responsible for 55% of frequency control and ancillary services in South Australia.[11] By the end of 2018, it was estimated that the Power Reserved had saved A$40 million in costs, most in eliminating the need for a 35 MW Frequency Control Ancillary Service.
Somewhat surprisingly, the power is mainly generated by the associated Hornsdale Wind Farm.
These are some statistics and facts of the installation at Hornsale.
- There are 99 wind turbines with a total generation capacity of 315 megawatts.
- HPR is promoted as the largest lithium-ion battery in the world.
- HPR can store 129 MWh of electricity.
- HPR can discharge 100 MW into the grid.
- The main use of HPR is to provide stability to the grid.
HPR also has a nice little earner, in storing energy, when the spot price is low and selling it when it is higher.
It certainly explains why investors are putting their money in energy storage.
Wikipedia lists four energy storage projects using batteries in the UK, mainly of an experimental nature in Lilroot, Kirkwall, Leighton Buzzard and six related sites in Northern |England. One site of the six has a capacity of 5 MWh, making it one of the largest in Europe.
But then we have the massive Dinorwig power station or Electric Mountain, which can supply ,1,728-MW and has a total storage capacity of 9.1 GWh
Consider.
- Electric Mountain has seventy times the capacity of Hornsdale Power Reserve.
- Electric Mountain cost £425 million in 1984, which would be a cost of £13.5 billion today.
- Another Electric Mountain would cost about £1.6 billion per GWh of energy storage.
- Hornsdale Power Reserve cost $ 50 million or about £26 million.
- Hornsdale Power Reserve would cost about £0.2 billion per GWh of energy storage.
So it would appear that large batteries are better value for money than large pumped storage systems like Electric Mountain.
But it’s not as simple as that!
- There aren’t many places, as suitable as North Wales for large pumped storage systems.
- Omce built, it appears pumped storage system can have a long life. Electric Mountain is thirty-five years old and with updating, I wouldsn’t be surprised to see Electric Mountain in operation at the end of this century.
- Battery sites can be relatively small, so can be placed perhaps in corners of industrial premises or housing developments.
- Battery sites can be built close to where power is needed, but pumped storage can only be built where geography allows.
- Pumped strage systems can need long and expensive connections to the grid.
- I think that the UK will not build another Electric Mountain, but will build several gigawatt-sized energy storage facilities.
- Is there enough lithium and other elements for all these batteries?
- Electric Mountain is well-placed in Snowdonia for some wind farms, but many are in the North Sea on the other side of the country.
In my view what is needed is a series of half-gigawatt storage facilities, spread all over the country.
Highview Power looks to be promising and I wrote about it in British Start-Up Beats World To Holy Grail Of Cheap Energy Storage For Wind And Solar.
But there will be lots of other good ideas!
Ovo’s Kaluza Partners With Powervault To Offer Smart Storage Service
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Business Green.
Read the article, as it shows the way domestic energy will be going in the next few years.
- Every house or collection of houses will have a battery.
- If there is a parking space there will be a charging point for an electric car.
- Like my house, many will have solar panels.
- An intelligent control system will tie it all togerther to minimise electricity bills.
- I suspect in the next couple of years, I will fit an energy store and a car charging point in my garage.
I may not have a car, but if I sell the house, it would make it easier to sell.
This article on Podpoint is entitled Adding Value To Your Property With EV Charging.
It makes some interesting points.
The Anonymous Widower 