The Coire Glas Pumped Storage Scheme
The Coire Glas pumped storage scheme, which is being developed by SSE Renewables will be the first large scale pumped storage scheme to be developed in the UK for more than 30 years.
- It would have a power output of 1.5 GW.
- Compared to Dinorwig (Electric Mountain) in Wales at 9.1 GWh and Cruachan in Scotland at 7.1 GWh, it will be a giant.
- Planning permission has been obtained.
The Coire Glas project has a web site.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Coire Glas is a hydro pumped storage scheme with a potential capacity of up to 1500MW. Coire Glas is an excellent pumped storage site with a large lower reservoir (Loch Lochy) and a significant elevation of more than 500m between the lower and the new upper reservoir site over a relatively short distance.
There is also an explanatory video.
This map was clipped from this SSE planning document.
Note.
- Loch Lochy in the Great Glen will be the lower reservoir.
- Loch Lochy is a freshwater loch, that is up to seventy metres deep.
- The top reservoir is formed by building a dam across the stream, that runs into the Northern end of Loch Lochy.
- The green line leading from the pentagon in the lake behind the dam towards Loch Lochy is the headrace tunnel.
- It leads to the brown rectangle, which is the underground power station.
- The blue line leading from the power station, where water is discharged into the loch.
- The two orange lines are access tunnels.
- The yellow line is the emergency access tunnel.
It is a standard layout for a pumped storage power station.
- To store electricity, water is pumped from Loch Lochy and stored in the new lake.
- To generate electricity, water runs down the headrace tunnel, through the turbines and then down the tailrace into Loch Lochy.
- The power station would have a number of pump/turbines, that can do both tasks.
In addition, any water from rain or snow melt, that runs into the top lake gives low-cost extra electricity.
This layout of the dam and the upper lake was clipped from this SSE planning document.
It would be an impressive structure.
Could this pumped storage scheme give the UK energy security?
Repurposing The Tummel Hydro-Electric Scheme
The Tummel hydro-electric scheme was built in the 1930s and 1950s, by the North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board.
- The scheme is now owned by SSE Renewables and has a page on their web site.
- There are nine individual power stations; Gaur, Cuaich, Loch Ericht, Rannoch, Tummel, Errochty, Trinafour, Clunie and Pitlochry.
- There are four dams; Gaur, Errochty, Clunie and Pitlochry.
This map from the SSE Renewables web site shows the layout of the dams and power stations.
This description of the scheme is from Wikipedia.
The Tummel hydro-electric power scheme is an interconnected network of dams, power stations, aqueducts and electric power transmission in the Grampian Mountains of Scotland. Roughly bounded by Dalwhinnie in the north, Rannoch Moor in the west and Pitlochry in the east it comprises a water catchment area of around 1,800 square kilometres (690 sq mi)[1] and primary water storage at Loch Ericht, Loch Errochty, Loch Rannoch and Loch Tummel, in Perth and Kinross. Water, depending on where it originates and the path it takes, may pass through as many as five of the schemes nine power stations as it progresses from north-west to south-east. The scheme was constructed in the 1940s and 50s incorporating some earlier sites.
Note.
- There are no underground power stations.
- The scheme is what is known as a run-of-the-river hydroelectric scheme.
The sizes of the power stations in the scheme are as follows.
- Gaur – 75 MW
- Cuaich – 2.5 MW
- Loch Ericht- 2.2 MW
- Rannoch – 44 MW
- Tummel – 34 MW
- Errochty – 75 MW
- Trinafour – 0.5 MW
- Clunie – 61 MW
- Pitlochry – 15 MW
This gives a total power of 309.2 MW.
This Google Map shows the same area as the SSE Renewables Map.
Note.
- Dalwhinnie is at the North of the map.
- Gaur is in the South-West corner of the map.
- Pitlochry is in the South-East corner of the map.
There are no underground power stations.
Strathclyde University And Pumped Storage Power For Scotland
This page on the Strathclyde University gives a list of the pumped storage potential for Scottish hydrogen-electric dams and power stations.
These figures are given for the dams and lochs in the Tummel scheme.
- Errochty – 16 GWh
- Clunie – 40 GWh
- Rannoch – 41 GWh
- Tummel – 38 GWh
It would appear that based on research from Strathclyde University, that the Tummel scheme could support over 120 GWh of pumped storage.
Water Flows In The Tummel Scheme
Looking at the SSE Renewables map of the Tummel scheme and reading this section in the Wikipedia entry for the Tummel scheme, which is entitled Water Route, water flows appear to be as follows.
- Loch an t-Seilich to Loch Cuaich
- Loch Cuaich to Loch Ericht via Cuaich power station and the Cuaich aqueduct
- Loch Garry to Loch Ericht via Ericht power station.
- Loch Ericht to Loch Rannoch
- Loch Eigheach to Loch Rannoch via Gaur power station
- Loch Rannoch to Dunalastair Water via Kinloch Rannoch weir
- Dunalistair Water to Loch Tummel via Tummel power station
- River Bruar and River Garry to Loch Errochty
- Loch Errochty to Loch Tummel via Errochty power station
- Loch Errochty to Trinafour power station
- Loch Tummel to Loch Faskally via Clunie power station
- Loch Faskally to Pitlochy power station
Note.
Water from Loch an t-Seilich can take various routes to Clunie and Pitlochry power stations.
Water from Loch Eigheach goes through Loch Rannoch, Dunalistair Water and Loch Tummel to Clunie and Pitlochry power stations.
It seems a complicated scheme but it does have a capacity of 307 MW, which compares with 389 MW of Bankside power station.
Refurbishing And Repurposing The Tummel Scheme
Perhaps as the power stations are now over fifty years old, one simple way to increase the generating capacity of the Affric/Beauly scheme might be to selectively replace the turbines, with modern turbines, that can generate electricity more efficiently.
I suspect that SSE Renewables have an ongoing program of improvements and replacements for all of their hydro-electric stations in Scotland. Some turbines at Sloy power station have already been replaced with larger ones.
In The Affric/Beauly Hydro-Electric Scheme, I wrote about the control system needs of that scheme, which I felt could be fairly challenging.
I suspect the control of the Tummel scheme is equally challenging.
Adding Pumped Storage To The Tummel Scheme
I’ll look at each possibility in turn.
Loch Errochty
Strathclyde University estimated that 16 GWh of pumped storage could be added to Loch Errochty.
This Google Map shows the Eastern end of Loch Errochty.
Note the dam at the Eastern end of the loch.
- The dam is 354 metres long by 49 metres high.
- The dam was built in 1957 and the lake is man-made.
- The loch stands at 330 metres above sea level.
- Water flows from the loch to the Errochty power station at the Western end of Loch Tummel, through a ten kilometre long tunnel.
This Google Map shows Errochty power station and Loch Tummel.
Note.
- Errochty power station is at the top of the map in the middle on the channel connecting it to the River Tummel.
- Errochty power station has two turbines and a maximum output of 75 MW.
- There is what appears to be a large switching station at the Western side of the map.
I obviously don’t know for sure, but I suspect this could be an easier scheme to convert, if the current turbines could be replaced with pump/turbines.
There is a section with the title; Water Supply To The Loch in the Wikipedia entry for Loch Errochty, where this is said.
Loch Errochty’s main feeder streams are the Allt Sléibh and the Allt Ruighe nan Saorach which both rise in the high ground to the west of the head of the loch. Other small streams flow directly off the 892-metre-high (2,927 ft) mountain of Beinn a’ Chuallaich which stands just to the south. Supplementary water is diverted into the loch from the east by the Errochty catchwater, a system of tunnels and surface pipelines at a height of approximately 380 metres which redirects water from five small tributary streams of the River Garry, and the Garry itself. The catchwater then goes through a tunnel in the hill which separates the Garry and Errochty valleys to join the loch. This method of re-directing water allows it to be used more often to generate electricity. Some of the water within the Tummel scheme passes through five of the power stations and thus generates electricity five times.
That strikes me as being very sophisticated for the 1950s and if the engineering and tunnels are up to a high standard, it might be that conversion of this power station to a 75 MW power station with 16 GWh pumped storage is a distinct possibility.
It might even be possible to increase the generating capacity of the power station.
Clunie
Strathclyde University estimated that 40 GWh of pumped storage could be added above Clunie power station.
This Google Map shows the River Tummel between Clunie and Pitlochry power stations.
Note.
- Clunie dam and power station is marked by a red arrow labelled Scottish and Southern Energy in the North-West corner of the map.
- Pitlochry Dam and power station are in the South-East corner of the map.
- River Tummel and Loch Faskally link the two dams.
There is a large volume of water between the two dams.
In a pump-back hydro-electric water is pumped back from the lake below the dam into the reservoir above the dam. Such a system was added to the Grand Coulee Dam in the United States to increase its generating and storage capacity.
This Google Map shows how the water to the West of Clunie dam and power station stretches to the other end of Loch Tummel.
As there would be large volumes on both sides of the dam, I am fairly sure, that a pump-back system could be employed at Clunie power station.
Whether 40 GWh of storage could be added, would be one for the designers of the rebuilt dam and power station?
Tummel
Strathclyde University estimated that 38 GWh of pumped storage could be added above Tummel power station.
This Google Map shows the Eastern end of Loch Rannoch, Dunalastair Water, the River Tummel and Tummel power station.
Note.
- Loch Rannoch is at the Western end of the map.
- Dunalastair Water is the smaller lake in the middle.
- Tummel power station is indicated by the red arrow at the East of the map.
This Google Map shows Tummel power station.
Note.
There appears to be two branches of the River Tummel.
- At the bottom of the map, it appears to be in an aqueduct and above the power station.
- Running across the top-right corner of the map, the second branch appears to be a low-level branch of the river.
- The height difference will mean that power station works well and generates its full 34 MW.
As with Clunie power station, I am sure there is scope for Tummel power station to pump water from Loch Tummel to Dunalastair water, when there is a surplus of wind-generated electricity.
But could space be found above Tummel power station to store enough water to create a massive 38 GWh pumped-storage power station?
Rannoch
This description of Lord Rannoch is from Wikipedia.
It is over 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) long in a west–east direction with an average width of about 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi), and is deepest at its eastern end, reaching a depth of 130 metres (440 ft).
The loch could hold almost a half a billion tonnes of water.
This Google Map shows Loch Rannoch and Loch Ericht
Note.
- Loch Rannoch is along the bottom of the map with Loch Dunalastair to the right.
- Loch Rannoch has an altitude of 205 metres.
- Rannoch power station is indicated by the red arrow.
- Rannoch power station was built in 1930 and the history of the power station is told in this page on the SSE web site, which is entitled A Real Gem In Hydro History.
- Loch Ericht runs to the North from above the power station.
- Loch Ericht has an altitude of 350 metres.
This Google Map shows Rannoch power station to a larger scale.
Rannoch power station is on the shore of Loch Rannoch and is described in this section in Wikipedia. This is said.
Rannoch Power Station, on the northern shore of the loch, is part of the Tummel hydro-electric power scheme, which is operated by SSE. The power station has a vertical head of 156 m (512 ft) and a total generating capacity of 44 MW, and uses water fed by pipeline and tunnel from Loch Ericht which is discharged into Loch Rannoch.
There are four pipes running down the hill from Loch Ericht, which deliver water to the power station.
The layout of Rannoch power station seems very similar to Sloy power station, which I described in A Lower-Cost Pumped Hydro Storage System.
- Both power stations sit on a large deep loch.
- Both have pipes to supply water going up the hill and then in a tunnel to a large loch over a hundred metres above the lower reservoir.
- Rannoch power station is a 44 MW power station built in 1930.
- Sloy power station is a 152.5 MW power station built in 1950.
SSE have been examining if a pumped-storage station could be added to Sloy power station.
Given the similarity of the layouts of the two stations, it could be that if it is possible to add pump storage to Sloy, that this could also be done at Rannoch.
Could 41 GWh be stored above Rannoch power station? I won’t say it is not possible.
Conclusion
Research at Strathclyde University gives these figures for possible storage capacity for these dams and lochs in the Tummel scheme.
- Errochty – 16 GWh
- Clunie – 40 GWh
- Rannoch – 41 GWh
- Tummel – 38 GWh
Adding these up gives a total of 135 GWh of stored energy for the Tummel scheme.
But that assumes every power station and dam is expanded to fit Strathclyde’s research.
SSE Renewables are currently calling for tenders for Coire Glas, as I wrote about in SSE Renewables Launches 1.5GW Coire Glas Construction Tender.
This was my conclusion in that post.
It looks to me, that it’s almost certain that Scotland will get a 1.5GW/30 GWh pumped-storage system at Coire Glas.
Coire Glas could supply slightly more power than Sizewell B nuclear power station for twenty hours.
Now that’s what I call backup!
But in the Tummel scheme, there could be three places, where a 30 GWh pumped-storage scheme could be developed and one where a 16 GWh scheme could be developed.
I would expect that a conservative figure of between 40-60 GWh of pumped-storage capacity could be added to the Tummel scheme.
Timber Freight Train Runs For First Time In 18 Years
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Network Rail has partnered with Colas Rail in a pilot project to run a timber freight train for the first time in 18 years.
A sawmill in Abergavenny has received the first rail-transported timber since 2004 which was transported 92 miles from Hackney Yard near Newton Abbot.
I do wonder how many other specialised freight trains like these could be run.
As it was only 320 tonnes on eight wagons, it was probably hauled by a diesel Class 66 or Class 70 locomotive.
If there were hydrogen-powered locomotives available, would this encourage more companies to switch from road to rail.
It also appears that for this movement, Network Rail had strengthened a bridge. Are there enough yards, where heavy trucks can access the railway?
Timber Imports
With the situation in Ukraine, I wondered if we imported any timber from Russia, that could perhaps be replaced by locally-grown timber.
I found this page on the Forest Research web site from the UK Government, which is entitled Origin Of Wood Imports.
Our biggest timber imports from Russia are wood pellets and plywood.
Wood pellets are an obvious import, as we also import large amounts from the United States and Canada and all three countries have extensive forests and I suspect they all produce large amounts of woody waste, that is only suitable for making into pellets.
Are we recycling scrap wood and woody waste, as best we can in the UK or are we just burning it on bonfires? The guy opposite lost a tree in the recent storms and a tree surgeon came with a special truck and a shredder to reduce it to small pieces of woody waste. Did that go to make pellets for Drax and other boilers that burn them?
It strikes me, that there may be opportunities For creating or enlarging our own wood pellet industry to cut imports.
Plywood comes mainly from China (37 %), Brazil (18 %), Finland (9 %) and Russia (8 %). Of these, I suspect only one has good environmental standards.
As this softwood plywood for lower-grade applications only needs wood from trees, that we can grow in this country, perhaps we should make a lot more in automated plants.
I’m sure Network Rail would be happy to arrange the transport.
“Game-Changing” Long-Duration Energy Storage Projects To Store Power In Hydrogen, Compressed Air And Next-Gen Batteries Win UK Government Backing
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from EDF.
These are the first two paragraphs.
EDF UK has received £2 million in funding from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to support four innovative methods of storing energy for longer periods of time.
The four longer-duration energy storage demonstration projects will help to achieve the UK’s plan for net zero by balancing the intermittency of renewable energy, creating more options for sustainable, low-cost energy storage in the UK.
These are the projects.
Tech Transfer And Modification Of Metal Hydride Storage Used In Fusion Sector For Hydrogen (Protium) Storage
The project is described like this in the press release.
The first project will store electricity as hydrogen in a chemical form using depleted uranium hydride (UH3). The project will utilise Urenco’s depleted uranium liability – a waste product from fuel production and reprocessed spent MOX fuel – to safely store hydrogen as UH3, which has approximately twice the volumetric energy density as liquid H2. The project will see EDF R&D lead a consortium combining expertise in engineering and materials from University of Bristol, operating metal hydride storage at UKAEA and handling depleted uranium from Urenco.
Sounds like a good project. Especially, as it finds a use for Urenco‘s depleted uranium.
Pivot Power
Pivot Power, part of EDF Renewables, will work on two projects.
- Delivering Power On Demand From Solar PV Using 40MWh Vanadium Flow Battery Storage System
- Accelerate Commercialisation Of Zinc-Based Battery Storage
The first project was described in Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration Programme, Stream 1 Phase 1: Details Of Successful Projects.
This is what EDF says about the two projects which are linked.
Pivot Power, part of EDF Renewables, will support the delivery of two demonstration projects. The first project, delivered in partnership with Invinity Energy Systems plc (AIM:IES), will establish the feasibility of developing one of the UK’s largest storage-enabled solar power resources. If selected, Phase Two of this project, which includes a utility-scale 10 MW / 40 MWh Invinity Vanadium Flow Battery, would receive funding under the programme.
Pivot Power will also work alongside e-Zinc, with support from Frontier Economics, to ‘metalize energy’, deploying breakthrough technology that stores energy in zinc, an inexpensive and widely available metal that has a high energy density.
I’m a believer in storing energy in zinc, until it is proven, it’s not a good method.
The final project was also described in Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration Programme, Stream 1 Phase 1: Details Of Successful Projects.
The EDF press release adds this.
The final project will explore how electricity, converted into compressed air, can be stored in EDF’s existing gas storage facilities, where EDF Thermal Generation and R&D will partner with io consulting and Hydrostor.
I have a good feeling about this project.
UK Government Awards Funding To Longer-Duration Energy Storage Tech Projects
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
The article gives a list of all the projects.
I looked at the Stream 1 projects in Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration Programme, Stream 1 Phase 1: Details Of Successful Projects.
I’ll put a link to Stream 2 projects here.
Energy3 – A Thermal Energy Storage System Providing Heating, Hot Water And Electricity
Energy3 – A Thermal Energy Storage System Providing Heating, Hot Water And Electricity
This article on Current News is entitled BEIS Unveils Nearly £7m Long Duration Energy Storage Funding.
One of the ideas, that has received funding is Energy3, which is an idea from the University of Edinburgh.
This is the introductory paragraph on the home page.
Renewable energy sourced from the sun, wind, waves, or tides is clean and secure. Unfortunately, the energy that can be extracted from renewables and the demand for it varies both temporally and spatially. To allow a household to be fully reliant on renewables or for grid operators to use a high proportion of renewable energy, storage is essential.
The University has developed a storage system based on heat, that is charged by using low-cost electricity. This heat can then be delivered during the day as heat, hot water and electricity.
Two sizes are available.
- mUHTS – A small cubic metre size, which is ideal for the average house.
- megaUHTS – A container sized system, which is aimed at a business.
They can also build bigger systems to replace thermal power stations.
This is a very interesting concept and I can see other similar systems being developed, by companies all over the world.
Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration Programme, Stream 1 Phase 1: Details Of Successful Projects
The title of this post, is the same as that of this document from the UK Government.
This is the introduction.
Stream 1 aims to accelerate commercialisation of innovative longer duration energy storage projects through to actual demonstrations. During Phase 1, projects will be expected to mobilise their proposed technologies to prepare for potential deployment on the UK energy system.
These are the projects.
Ballylumford Power-to-X
This is the description of this project in Northern Ireland.
B9 Energy Storage will receive £986,082 to mobilise a 20MW membrane free electrolyser green hydrogen project. Using otherwise curtailed wind power, hydrogen produced will be stored in local underground salt caverns for later use as a fuel in transport and electricity sectors, creating a full-cycle hydrogen economy (production, storage, distribution and usage) on site.
Note.
Ballylumford power station is a 600 MW gas-fired power station, that provides half of Northern Ireland’s electricity.
A 20 MW electrolyser will produce just under nine tonnes of hydrogen per day.
This Google Map shows the location of the power station opposite the port of Larne.
Note.
Ballylumford power station is clearly visible to the East of the channel towards the bottom of the map.
Ballylumford is also the Irish end of the HVDC Moyle interconnector from Scotland, which has a capacity of 500 MW.
Ballylumford would appear to have enough power for a large electrolyser.
Salt Beds In Northern Ireland
This document on the British Geological Survey web site is entitled Geological Storage In Northern Ireland.
The document discusses Irelands energy needs and gives a good description of using compressed air energy storage in salt caverns.
Then these two paragraphs describe the salt bed in Northern Ireland compare them to other deposits under Great Britain.
Thick halite deposits, found both onshore in Northern Ireland and immediately offshore in the North Channel, offer potential for salt cavern storage facilities. The salt deposits occur as bedded deposits with minor halokinesis (geological movement of salt) forming salt swells rather than pillows or domes so that the height of any cavern may be restricted by bed thickness. Pure salt beds tend to be thin (approximately 100-250 metres maximum thickness) compared to those used elsewhere and the presence of significant insoluble impurities and minor intrusive dolerite dykes or sills may reduce their suitability.
The Larne and Carrickfergus area of County Antrim is the only part of the whole island where thick salt beds occur. Elsewhere in the UK parts of Cheshire, Lancashire, Teesside, Humberside and Dorset have similar, or thicker, developments of salt beds and gas storage facilities are either in construction, or are already in operation.
It would appear that the thick salt beds in the Larne and Carrickfergus area could be suitable for gas storage.
Ballylumford might actually be on top of the salt beds, as Carrickfergus is a few miles to the South.
On a personal note, I used to work for ICI Mond Division and during that time and immediately afterwards, I met many people, who had been into the salt mines and worked with boreholes extracting the salt and the one thing everybody said about the salt mine, was that water must not get in.
Membrane-Free Electrolysis
I saw this in operation when I worked at ICI Mond. Most of their hydrogen and chlorine was produced using the main Castner-Kellner process at Castner-Kellner works in Runcorn. That is a nasty process that uses a lot of mercury, which got into the air and plant operators’ bodies.
But ICI also had a much smaller plant, where they used simple electrolysers, that had a metal cell, with a concrete top, with the anode and cathode going through the concrete into the brine. I seem to remember that its main purpose was to provide mercury-free hydrogen, chlorine and sodium hydroxide. I can remember seeing workers rebuilding the cells, as was done on a regular basis.
These were membrane free electrolysers and had been running successfully for many years.
Searching the Internet for “membrane free electrolyser” I found a company in Doncaster called CPH2.
The home page on their web site declares
Clean Power Hydrogen are the manufacturers of the unique Membrane-Free Electrolyser
Turning to the About page, this is said.
Being passionate about hydrogen as clean energy for the future, we wanted to find an alternative to PEM electrolysers as these had barriers to adoption. We realised that the cleanest way to produce hydrogen was by membrane-free water electrolysis, and in doing so, it would be a less expensive and more robust technology.
Dr. Nigel Williamson and Joe Scott established CPH2 (Ireland) in 2012 with the ambition to help clean up the environment for our children and future generations. Entering the green technology sector; a high growth and profitable market, they developed a Membrane-Free Electrolyser™ to produce hydrogen faster, more reliably, and more cost-effectively than other electrolysers.
They also have the ambition to be leading developer and manufacturer of green hydrogen technologies and an Irish connection.
My experience says that their technology will work. Especially, with the application of modern materials.
Have the Government backed the Ballylumford Power-to-X project, as they can back two promising technologies with one grant?
GraviSTORE
This is the description of this project.
Gravitricity Limited will receive £912,410.84 to design their multiweight energy store demonstrator project, which will store and discharge energy by lifting and lowering multiple weights in a vertical underground shaft.
Note.
- I like the Gravitricity concept and have invested through crowdfunding.
- The project will be based on a brownfield site in Northern England.
- Gravitricity’s current demonstrator in Edinburgh, which I wrote about in Gravitricity Celebrates Success Of 250kW Energy Storage Demonstrator, only uses a single weight, but this project talks about multiple weights.
According to other sources on the Internet, the demonstrator will have a storage capacity of 4 MWh and will be built on a brownfield site.
Will we see Gravitricity coming to a disused deep coal mine near you?
Long Duration Offshore Storage Bundle
This is the description of this project.
Subsea 7 Limited and FLASC B.V. will receive £471,760.00 to further develop the Long Duration Offshore Storage Bundle which will store energy as a combination of pressurised seawater and compressed air, using an innovative hydro-pneumatic technology.
Note.
- Subsea 7 Limited are a subsea engineering, construction and services company serving the offshore energy industry, domiciled in Luxembourg with headquarters in London.
- According to their web site, FLASC B.V. is a spin-off of the University of Malta, established in The Netherlands in 2019.
On the page on the FLASC web site, which is labelled The Technology, this is said.
FLASC is an energy storage device that can be integrated directly into a floating offshore platform. Energy is stored using a hydro-pneumatic liquid piston, driven by a reversible pump-turbine.
Charging Mode: electricity is used to pump water into a closed chamber containing pre-charged air.
Discharging Mode: the pressurised water is released through a hydraulic turbine to generate electricity.
FLASC leverages existing infrastructure and supply chains, along with the marine environment itself as a natural heatsink, resulting in a safe, reliable and cost-effective solution.
There is also this video.
The news page on the FLASC web site is a comforting read.
My knowledge of modelling vessel systems for chemical plants, tells my brain to like it.
Vanadium Flow Battery Longer Duration Energy Asset Demonstrator
This is the description of this project.
Invinity Energy Systems will receive £708,371 to demonstrate how a 40 MWh Vanadium Flow Battery could deliver long duration storage-enabled power on demand from UK-based solar generation.
Note.
- I wrote about Invinity Energy Systems in UK’s Pivot Power Sees First Battery On Line By 2021.
- Invinity Energy Systems was formed by a merger of RedT and Avalon Battery.
- The project appears to be located at Bathgate in Scotland.
This picture from EdF shows a large vanadian flow battery.
Invinity Energy Systems flow battery at Energy Superhub Oxford
If this project works out, vanadium flow batteries would be a good replacement for lithium-ion batteries.
Cheshire Energy Storage Centre
This is the description of this project.
io consulting will receive £1 million to enable its consortium to develop an electricity storage facility which could use mothballed EDF gas cavities in Cheshire utilising Hydrostor’s Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage technology
Note.
- This is another project based on salt caverns.
- I wrote about Canadian company; Hydrostor in Gigawatt-Scale Compressed Air: World’s Largest Non-Hydro Energy-Storage Projects Announced.
- Hydrostor have received at least one large order for their system.
I have put Hydrostor on my list of tecnologies that should make it.
Conclusion
This is a well-balanced list of projects.
I would rate success as follows.
- Ballylumford Power-to-X – 60 %
- GraviSTORE – 80 %
- Long Duration Offshore Storage Bundle – 60 %
- Vanadium Flow Battery Longer Duration Energy Asset Demonstrator – 70 %
- Cheshire Energy Storage Centre – 80 %
But then all these projects are a bit of a gamble
Giant Batteries Will Provide Surge Of Electricity Storage
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Britain’s capacity to store electricity in giant batteries is set to double after dozens of new projects won contracts through a government scheme to keep the lights on.
Developers of battery storage projects with a total output capacity of at least 3.3 gigawatts won contracts to operate from winter 2025-26 through the government’s “capacity market” auction, according to Cornwall Insight, the consultancy.
Note that Hinckley Point C is only 3.26 GW.
The biggest battery in these contracts is a giant that Intergen will be building at the London Gateway.
When the battery got planning permission in November 2020, Intergen published this press release, which is entitled InterGen Gains Consent To Build One Of The World’s Largest Battery Projects In Essex.
These are three bullet points at the head of the press release.
- Edinburgh-headquartered energy company InterGen has been granted planning consent to build the UK’s largest battery storage project at DP World London Gateway on the Thames Estuary.
- £200m project is set to provide at least 320MW/640MWh of capacity, with the potential to expand to 1.3GWh – more than ten times the size of the largest battery currently in operation in the UK and set to be one of the world’s largest.
- The battery will provide fast-reacting power and system balancing with an initial two-hour duration, and is a significant piece of infrastructure on the UK’s journey to net zero.
As Cilla might have said. “What a lorra lorra lot of lithium!”
But it’s not just lithium-ion batteries that are getting large.
In The Power Of Solar With A Large Battery, I talked about a Highview Power CRYOBattery with a capacity of 50MW/500MWh, that is being built in the Atacama desert in Chile.
The Essex battery is a giant battery and it’s bigger than the one in Chile, but I’m fairly sure Highview Power could build a battery bigger than the one InterGen are building. You just add more liquid air tanks and turbomachinery.
Wind Turbines On A Train
I was searching for something else and found this video.
I wonder, if we’ll ever see wind-turbine blades transferred by rail in the UK!
Probably not, as our railway gauge is too small.
The Big Beast In Your Electric Bus
This article on electrive.com is entitled BAE Systems Takes Orders For 340 Hybrid Drive Systems.
This is the first paragraph.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) has selected BAE Systems to supply up to 340 hybrid electric drive systems for its new fleet of low emission transit buses. BAE Systems will provide 220 electric drive systems to New Flyer of America, with an option for 120 additional systems, over the next three years.
The article also reveals that the company is working with AlexanderDennis.
The system appears to be hybrid, with a lot of intelligent choosing of when to use a polluting engine.
The Anonymous Widower 