Spanish Govt Approves Energy Storage Strategy, Sees 20 GW In 2030
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now!
This is the introductory paragraph.
The Spanish government on Tuesday approved the energy storage strategy, targeting some 20 GW of storage capacity in 2030 and reaching 30 GW by 2050 from today’s 8.3 GW.
How will Spain increase their storage capacity?
Pumped Storage Systems
Spain already has a couple of large pumped storage systems.
The La Muela II Pumped Storage Power Station
The La Muela II Pumped Storage power station is based on the Cortes-La Muela Reservoir
This Google Map shows the dam.
In terms of generating capacity, it is about the same size as Dinorwig power station in Snowdonia., which is the UK’s largest pumped storage power station.
The Aldeadávila Dam
The Aldeadávila Dam is a 1243 MW hydro-electric power station with a pumped storage addition on the River Douro between Spain and Portugal.
This Google Map shows the dam.
It certainly looks like a place to visit.
Both these pumped storage station seem to have been converted from earlier hydro-electric power stations.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn, that the Spaniards, were going to increase their number of pumped storage power stations.
- Spain certainly has the mountains, with big rivers running through!
- Bolarque dam already uses pumped-storage techniques.
Are there any other existing hydro-electric power stations in Spain, that can be converted to pumped storage or be upgraded?
Concentrated Solar Power
Spain has around thirty concentrated solar power or CSP power stations, either in operation, under construction or planned.
Some also store electricity as heat.
Spain is not short of sun.
Spain is considered a world leader in this technology.
This Google Map shows the Andasol solar power station.
The specification includes.
- It uses technology called a parabolic trough.
- A nameplate capacity of 149.7 MW
- A capacity factor of 37.7 %
- Annual net output of 495 GWh
- a storage capacity of 1.123 GWh
- The energy storage is based on a mixture of potassium and sodium nitrates.
- The power station takes up an area of six square kilometres.
Will Spain build more of these CSP power stations or add energy storage to some of the existing stations?
Batteries
The article has this sentence.
the government wants to add large-scale batteries, behind-the-metre batteries — minimum 400 MW in 2030 — and make the most of the vehicle-to-grid technology, according to the document.
It should be noted that Spain has installed capacity of over 25 GW of wind power, according to this article on Wikipedia, which is entitled Wind Power In Spain.
These are some points from the article.
- Spain has a lot of indigenous wind turbine manufacture.
- The Spanish wind-power industry employs upwards of 60,000 people.
- A central control centre for Spanish wind power needs to be developed.
- There is little opposition to onshore wind, although perhaps somewhat surprisingly, there is some opposition to offshore wind.
After reading what Wikipedia had to say, it appears to me, that Spain needs a ;pt of batteries to support all these wind turbines.
The world’s second largest wind-turbine manufacturer is Siemens Gamesa, who are Spanish-based.
Siemens Gamesa have an innovation storage battery based on hot volcanic rock, which I wrote about in Siemens Gamesa Begins Operation Of Its Innovative Electrothermal Energy Storage System.
This gives a brief description of the pilot plant.
The heat storage facility, which was ceremonially opened today in Hamburg-Altenwerder, contains around 1,000 tonnes of volcanic rock as an energy storage medium. It is fed with electrical energy converted into hot air by means of a resistance heater and a blower that heats the rock to 750°C. When demand peaks, ETES uses a steam turbine for the re-electrification of the stored energy. The ETES pilot plant can thus store up to 130 MWh of thermal energy for a week. In addition, the storage capacity of the system remains constant throughout the charging cycles.
It was taken from this press release from Siemens Gamesa.
This page on the Siemens web site gives the nominal output of the system as 30 MW.
So it would need just over a dozen systems like these to perhaps be strategically-placed near large wind farms to meet Spain’s target of 400 MW of energy storage.
Highview Power’s liquid air systems would be another possibility, but I doubt, they’d perform as well in the heat of Spain, as a system based on hot rocks.
Conclusion
Spain’s plan seems achievable and could create a lot of employment.
It also seems to me, that their natural resources of mountains, big rivers and lots of sun are a great help.
Crown Estate’s Auction Of Seabed For Wind Farms Attracts Sky-High Bids
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the opening paragraph.
An auction of seabed rights to build offshore wind farms around England and Wales has attracted frenzied bidding that could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year to the Treasury and the Queen.
I don’t find this surprising.
Bigger Seems Better Offshore
Wind turbine technology is getting better and much larger. It also seems that the new larger floating turbines are much more efficient and generate power for a greater proportion of the day.
- Hywind Scotland is the world’s first commercial wind farm using floating wind turbines.
- It is situated off Peterhead.
- It consists of five 6 MW turbines.
- Wikipedia says it has a capacity factor of over 50 %.
My project management software helped to harvest North Sea Oil and I have been told by many in the industry, that North Sea Oil really took off when platforms and the equipment like cranes used to build them got truly enormous.
I feel, we could be seeing the same size effect happening as we harvest the wind!
Hydrogen And Wind Power
The latest development is not to generate electricity, but to use it in the turbine to generate hydrogen, which is then piped to the shore.
- The UK Government is funding this technology in part with a grant to ITM Power.
- I wrote about the technology in ITM Power and Ørsted: Wind Turbine Electrolyser Integration.
- Existing gas networks can be reconfigured to bring the hydrogen to the shore.
- Piping hydrogen costs less than cabling electricity.
- Hydrogen networks are being built at several places in the UK, to fuel homes, power stations and industry like steel-making and petrochemicals.
Could all this explain Big Oil’s involvement?
Do they want to exchange fossil fuels for green hydrogen?
They certainly know how to distribute it.
Energy Storage
For my own investments, I’m looking at energy storage, where the UK has at least three promising new ideas, all of whom have had Government grants.
- Gravitricity
- Highview Power
- ReEnergise
The Government has also indirectly-backed Cornish Lithium
Meet The British Inventor Who Came Up With A Green Way Of Generating Electricity From Air – In His Shed
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on inews, which is written by the respected BBC journalist; Tom Heap.
This is the first two paragraphs.
In 25 years of reporting on the environment, I’ve become unshakably convinced in the seriousness and urgency of tackling climate change, but also rather dismayed that our successes in reducing greenhouse gases and promising scientific breakthroughs go largely unreported.
I’ve seen super plants that improve photo-synthesis, cows that belch less methane and next-gen solar panels. But there is one individual who deserves to be as famous in green-tech as Elon Musk for how his invention could help stop global warming.
The man is Peter Dearman from Bishop’s Stortford and his invention is the technology behind Highview Power, that is building a 250 MWh liquid air battery at Carrington, near Manchester.
Work Begins On New Substation For World’s Longest Electricity Cable Between Denmark and Lincolnshire
The title of this post, is the same as that, of this article on Lincolnshire Live.
This is the sub-title.
Britain and Denmark will be able to share enough clean energy to power 1.5 million homes.
The Viking Link is a 1400 MW at 525 KV electricity interconnector between Bicker Fen in Lincolnshire and Revsing in Jutland, Denmark.
This Google Map, shows the location of Bicker Fen, about halfway between Boston and Sleaford.
This second map shows an enlarged view of the Bicker Fen area.
Note.
- The village of Bicker in the South-East corner of the map.
- In the North-West corner of the map is Bicker Fen Wind Farm.
This third map shows the wind farm.
Note the thirteen wind turbines between the two sub-stations full of wo electrical gubbins.
This sentence from the Wikipedia entry for Bicker, gives more details of the wind farm and the future plans for the area.
North of the main line of 400 kV pylons is the Bicker Fen windfarm consisting of 13 turbines producing 26 MW (2 MW each), enough for 14,000 homes. The construction of the windfarm met some local objection. The windmills sit north from Poplartree Farm and were built in June 2008 by Wind Prospect for EdF. They are of the type REpower MM82, made in Hamburg. Bicker Fen substation is also the proposed landing site for a 1,400 MW power cable from Denmark called Viking Link, as well as the proposed offshore wind farm Triton Knoll.
Triton Knoll is a big wind farm, with a planned capacity of 857 MW and should start producing electricity in the next couple of years.
Conclusion
The Viking Link and Triton Knoll are obviously a good fit, as the UK will be able to exchange energy as required.
But it would appear that there’s one thing missing from this setup – energy storage.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a large battery built at Bicker Fen. Something, like one of Highview Power‘s CRYOBatteries might be ideal.
Holy Grail Of Energy Storage Receives Two Grants
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Off Grid Energy Independence.
This is the introductory paragraph.
RheEnergise is one of only a select handful of businesses to have been awarded grants under both the Sustainable Innovation Fund & the Small Business Research Initiative.
So what have RheEnergise developed?
The home page of their web site, is surprisingly detailed, unlike those of some other companies with new ideas, and not just energy storage companies!
This is the first paragraph on their home page.
RheEnergise is bringing innovation to pumped hydro storage. We call our new solution High-Density Hydro ™.
I think that is a good start, as although pumped hydro storage is well proven and the UK has the 1,728 MW Dinorwig Power Station, which has a storage capacity of 9.1 GWh, building new large pumped storage systems is fraught with difficulties and the technology has seen only modest innovation in the last few decades.
The next paragraph on their home page describes their innovation.
HD Hydro ™ uses our proprietary HD Fluid R-19 ™, which has 2.5x the density of water. R-19 gives RheEnergise projects 2.5x the power and 2.5x the energy when compared to water.
This means that for the same size of pumped hydro storage power station, you get 2.5 times the amount of energy storage.
Alongside a diagram of the system, the advantages of their systems is stated.
Projects can be installed on hills 2.5x lower than a project using water and still achieve the same power – for example, there are so many more hills at 150m than at 375m.
2.5x smaller, by volume, meaning dramatically lower construction costs, faster build times, easier reinstatement and easier landscaping – projects can be entirely hidden.
A very simple innovation has greatly increased the possibilities of pumped hydro storage.
The home page also gives a typical capacity.
RheEnergise projects provide 10MW to 50MW power and 2 to 10 hours of storage capacity.
These systems are in the same range as those of Highview Power, who are building a 50 MW system, with a five hour capacity at Carrington near Manchester, that I wrote about in Highview Power Breaks Ground on 250MWh CRYOBattery Long Duration Energy Storage Facility.
Both have the advantage, that they are easily scalable.
With RheEnergise’s HD Hydro ™, the size of the upper reservoir would need to be increased and with Highview Power’s CRYOBattery, more tanks for the liquid air would need to be added.
The Technology
I certainly agree with the principle behind ReEnergise, both mathematically and practically.
My interest scientifically, is what is the fluid they use?
- Pure water has a specific gravity of one and everything else is measured with respect to this.
- So aluminium, which has a specific gravity of 2.7, is 2.7 times as heavy as water.
- Many of us will be familiar with mercury, which is a metal, that is liquid at room temperature.
- Mercury has a specific gravity of 13.56.
It puzzles me, how someone has created a liquid, almost as heavy as aluminium, that can be pumped and handled like water, as it would need to be, to make a pumped storage system work.
Highview Power Breaks Ground on 250MWh CRYOBattery Long Duration Energy Storage Facility
The title of this post, is the same as that of this News page on the Highview web site.
The page shows this picture of diggers doing, what they do.
Note the two towers in the background of the image on the right. They look like the towers of Carrington power station, which are shown on this page on the FK Group web site, who built the 884 MW CCGT power station.
This Google Map shows the site of the power station.
On a larger scale map, you can pick out the towers from their shadows and it looks to me, that Highview’s 250MWh CRYOBattery is being built on the vacant site to the South of the power station.
Consider.
- The vacant site looks large.
- I’ve read somewhere that Highview’s CRYOBatteries are expandable by adding more tanks.
- They certainly have space to add lots of extra tanks and a 884 MW power station on the doorstep to fill them.
- All the heavy equipment and components to build Carrington power station were brought in by barge using the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal. Will this method be used again?
This seems to be a site that would be ideal for a very large battery.
UK Energy Plant To Use Liquid Air
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This article about the technique is different, as it details some of the human back-story in these three paragraphs.
The system was devised by Peter Dearman, a self-taught backyard inventor from Hertfordshire, and it has been taken to commercial scale with a £10m grant from the UK government.
“It’s very exciting,” he told BBC News. “We need many different forms of energy storage – and I’m confident liquid air will be one of them.”
Mr Dearman said his invention was 60-70% efficient, depending how it is used.
Mr. Dearman is now a passive shareholder in Highview Power, who are building the plant.
The Most Important News Of The Day
It has nothing to do with that soon-to-be-ex President across the Pond, except that he would brand it a waste of money and a fantasy.
If he did call it a fantasy, he’d at least know something about fantasy.
This article on Recharge is entitled Work Starts To Build World’s First Commercial Liquid-Air Energy Storage Plant.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Work has started to build the world’s first commercial liquid-air energy storage facility near Manchester, northern England, along with a visitor centre that aims to turn the pioneering project into a tourist attraction.
A joint venture between UK-based Highview Power and independent solar/natural-gas plant developer Carlton Power will build and operate the 50MW/250MWh “CRYObattery” — which may later be expanded to add more storage — in the village of Carrington, close to Manchester United’s training ground.
The visitor centre will open in the first quarter of 2021, with the plant planned to start operation in 2023.
- That seems to me to be an ambitious time-scale.
- On the other hand, the plant appears to be composed of well-proven readily-available components, so it will not be too challenging.
Whether Trummkopf likes it or not, construction of the second plant in the Democratic-voting state of Vermont, will surely be starting in the near future.
- He would like the fact that at 50MW400 MWh, the American battery is larger.
- He wouldn’t like the fact, that it is replacing a coal-fired power station.
- It will give eight hours of full-power as opposed to Manchester’s five.
- As both plants are rated at 50 MW, I suspect the two plants are identical on the energy generation side.
- Vermont would just have more tanks to store the liquid air.
It is my view, that these two, will be the first of many.
So, What Exactly Is Long-Duration Energy Storage?
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Greentech Media.
This is the sub-title.
Everyone’s talking about it, and Californians are buying in. Here’s what you need to know about this emerging grid sector.
It describes what California is doing and the sector, with particular reference to Hydrostor, Form Energy and Highview Power.
The article finishes with a section entitled What’s The Catch?
This is the first two paragraphs.
The obvious barrier to a thriving long-duration storage industry is convincing generally conservative power plant customers that emerging technologies quite unlike anything the grid currently uses are safe bets for decades of operation.
Lab tests can reduce the risk, but nothing beats operational, megawatt-scale installations for proving that something works. That’s why the Form deal with Great River Energy is so crucial, as are early projects by Highview Power and Hydrostor. The big exception to technology risk is pumped hydro, which has been used at scale for decades. Those projects grapple instead with high capital expense and environmental concerns.
The article is a must-read and hopefully, this and more articles like it, will convince conservative energy company owners, regulators and governments, that long duration energy storage is the missing link between renewable power and electricity consumers.
At least, the current UK Government has backed two of the most promising British long duration energy storage companies; Gravitricity and Highview Power.
Highview Power, Enlasa Form JV To Bring Cryogenic Storage To LatAm
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now.
This is the opening paragraph.
UK’s Highview Power has formed a joint venture (JV) with Chilean backup power supplier Energia Latina SA (Enlasa) to co-develop giga-scale cryogenic energy storage projects in Chile and across Latin America, it was announced on Wednesday.
Highview has designed the CRYOBattery, its proprietary cryogenic energy storage system that uses liquid air as the storage medium and is capable of delivering from 20 MW/100 MWh to more than 200 MW/2 GWh. The company says that its system is comparable to thermal and nuclear in baseload power delivery.
I’ve always liked Highview Power‘s simple idea of storing energy as liquid air.
- The technology is simple.
- No nasty or envionmentally-unfriendly substances are used.
- There must be few countries in the world, who don’t have the expertise to run these plants safely and to the designed performance.
- As the extract says, the systems can store gigawatts of power.
Not bad, when you consider that cryogenic energy storage was invented by a garage inventor in Hertfordshire.
The Anonymous Widower 