energy storage essay

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Energy storage articles from across Nature Portfolio

Freedom of chemical space

Phase transitions are detrimental to the cyclability of layered oxide cathodes for next-generation sodium-ion batteries. Now, two complementary studies suggest principles on how to navigate through the vast compositional space for better electrochemical performance.

• Dylan A. Edelman
• Donggun Eum
• William C. Chueh

Related Subjects

• Hydrogen storage
• Supercapacitors

Latest Research and Reviews

Hybridizing carbonate and ether at molecular scales for high-energy and high-safety lithium metal batteries

Here, authors report a linear functionalized solvent through molecular hybridization. Complementary ethers and carbonates are integrated into a single molecule, exhibiting properties suited for high-energy and high safety lithium metal batteries.

• Jiawei Chen
• Daoming Zhang
• Yongyao Xia

Chlorine bridge bond-enabled binuclear copper complex for electrocatalyzing lithium–sulfur reactions

Here, the authors report a homonuclear cooper dual-atom electrocatalyst with high activity designed for synchronously boosting the sulfur and lithium evolutions.

• Yingze Song

Balancing resistor-based online electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in battery systems: opportunities and limitations

Alexander Blömeke and colleagues investigate the conditions under which the balancing resistors in battery systems can be used for impedance measurements. This helps to improve state estimation and results in safer and more sustainable battery systems.

• Alexander Blömeke
• Hendrik Zappen
• Dirk Uwe Sauer

Manipulating the diffusion energy barrier at the lithium metal electrolyte interface for dendrite-free long-life batteries

Constructing an artificial solid electrolyte interphase to protect the lithium metal electrode is promising but challenging. Here, authors report a facile approach to form a layer to simultaneously overcome diffusion and advection-limited ion transport to achieve dendrite-free Li plating/stripping.

• Jyotshna Pokharel
• Arthur Cresce

Enhancements of electric field and afterglow of non-equilibrium plasma by Pb(Zr x Ti 1−x )O 3 ferroelectric electrode

The physics of how ferroelectric materials enhance plasma properties and discharge is unclear. Here, the authors enhance surface charge, electric field and afterglow of nonequilibrium plasma by ferroelectric barrier discharge with evidence from laser diagnostics.

Giant energy storage and power density negative capacitance superlattices

• Suraj S. Cheema
• Nirmaan Shanker
• Sayeef Salahuddin

News and Comment

Databank details thermal runaway.

• Changjun Zhang

Self-sufficient metal–air batteries for autonomous systems

We explore the challenges and opportunities for electrochemical energy storage technologies that harvest active materials from their surroundings. Progress hinges on advances in chemical engineering science related to membrane design; control of mass transport, reaction kinetics and precipitation at electrified interfaces; and regulation of electrocrystallization of metals through substrate design.

• Shifeng Hong
• Lynden A. Archer

Decoupled architecture enables pH decoupling

To date, organic-based redox flow batteries (RFBs) have relatively low open-circuit voltages (OCVs), limiting their commercial viability. Achieving higher OCVs with pH-decoupled RFBs faces challenges due to severe ion crossover, prompting new research that proposes an acid–base regeneration cell to address this limitation.

• Mike L. Perry

Entropy-assisted epitaxial coating

Surface reconstruction, chemo-mechanical degradation, and interfacial side reactions are major factors limiting the cyclability of Ni-rich cathodes. A strategy based on entropy-assisted epitaxial coating is now shown to effectively mitigate these issues, leading to improved battery performance and promising advances in electrochemical energy storage.

• Simon Schweidler
• Torsten Brezesinski
• Ben Breitung

Flash upcycling of glass fibre-reinforced plastics waste

Most glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GFRPs) waste currently ends up in either landfills or incineration facilities, resulting in adverse environmental impacts and waste of resources. Now, a flash Joule heating technology can achieve rapid and effective upcycling of GFRPs waste into SiC, a material that has a wide range of applications.

• Zhedong Liu

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Fact Sheet | Energy Storage (2019)

February 22, 2019

Due to growing concerns about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels and the capacity and resilience of energy grids around the world, engineers and policymakers are increasingly turning their attention to energy storage solutions. Indeed, energy storage can help address the intermittency of solar and wind power; it can also, in many cases, respond rapidly to large fluctuations in demand, making the grid more responsive and reducing the need to build backup power plants. The effectiveness of an energy storage facility is determined by how quickly it can react to changes in demand, the rate of energy lost in the storage process, its overall energy storage capacity, and how quickly it can be recharged.

Energy storage is not new. Batteries have been used since the early 1800s, and pumped-storage hydropower has been operating in the United States since the 1920s. But the demand for a more dynamic and cleaner grid has led to a significant increase in the construction of new energy storage projects, and to the development of new or better energy storage solutions.

Fossil fuels are the most used form of energy, partly due to their transportability and the practicality of their stored form, which allows generators considerable control over the rate of energy supplied. In contrast, the energy generated by solar and wind is intermittent and reliant on the weather and season. As renewables have become increasingly prominent on the electrical grid, there has been a growing interest in systems that store clean energy

Energy storage can also contribute to meeting electricity demand during peak times, such as on hot summer days when air conditioners are blasting or at nightfall when households turn on their lights and electronics. Electricity becomes more expensive during peak times as power plants have to ramp up production in order to accommodate the increased energy usage. Energy storage allows greater grid flexibility as distributors can buy electricity during off-peak times when energy is cheap and sell it to the grid when it is in greater demand.

As extreme weather exacerbated by climate change continues to devastate U.S. infrastructure, government officials have become increasingly mindful of the importance of grid resilience. Energy storage helps provide resilience since it can serve as a backup energy supply when power plant generation is interrupted. In the case of Puerto Rico, where there is minimal energy storage and grid flexibility, it took approximately a year for electricity to be restored to all residents.

The International Energy Association (IEA) estimates that, in order to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, the world needs 266 GW of storage by 2030, up from 176.5 GW in 2017. Under current trends, Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that the global energy storage market will hit that target, and grow quickly to a cumulative 942 GW by 2040 (representing $620 billion in investment over the next two decades).

Energy Storage Today

In 2017, the United States generated 4 billion megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, but only had 431 MWh of electricity storage available. Pumped-storage hydropower (PSH) is by far the most popular form of energy storage in the United States, where it accounts for 95 percent of utility-scale energy storage. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), pumped-storage hydropower has increased by 2 gigawatts (GW) in the past 10 years. In 2015, the United States had 22 GW of PSH storage incorporated into the grid. Yet, despite the widespread use of PSH, in the past decade the focus of technological advancement has been on battery storage.

By December 2017, there was approximately 708 MW of large-scale battery storage operational in the U.S. energy grid. Most of this storage is operated by organizations charged with balancing the power grid, such as Independent System Operators (ISOs) and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs). ISOs and RTOs are “independent, federally-regulated non-profit organizations” that control regional electricity pricing and distribution.

PJM, a regional transmission organization located in 13 eastern states (including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Illinois), has the largest amount of large-scale battery installations, with a storage capacity of 278 MW at the end of 2017. The second biggest owner of large-scale battery capacity is California’s ISO (CAISO). By the end of 2017, CAISO operated batteries with a total storage capacity of 130MW.

Most of the battery storage projects that ISOs/RTOs develop are for short-term energy storage and are not built to replace the traditional grid. Most of these facilities use lithium-ion batteries, which provide enough energy to shore up the local grid for approximately four hours or less. These facilities are used for grid reliability, to integrate renewables into the grid, and to provide relief to the energy grid during peak hours.

There is also a limited market for small-scale energy storage. While a minor portion of the small-scale storage capacity in the United States is for residential use, most of it is for use in the commercial sector—and most of these commercial projects are located in California.

In the past decade, the cost of energy storage, solar and wind energy have all dramatically decreased, making solutions that pair storage with renewable energy more competitive. In a bidding war for a project by Xcel Energy in Colorado, the median price for energy storage and wind was $21/MWh, and it was $36/MWh for solar and storage (versus $45/MWh for a similar solar and storage project in 2017). This compares to $18.10/MWh and $29.50/MWh, respectively, for wind and solar solutions without storage, but is still a long way from the $4.80/MWh median price for natural gas. Much of the price decrease is due to the falling costs of lithium-ion batteries; from 2010 to 2016 battery costs for electric vehicles (similar to the technology used for storage) fell 73 percent. A recent GTM Research report estimates that the price of energy storage systems will fall 8 percent annually through 2022.

Selected Energy Storage Technologies

There are many different ways of storing energy, each with their strengths and weaknesses. The list below focuses on technologies that can currently provide large storage capacities (of at least 20 MW). It therefore excludes superconducting magnetic energy storage and supercapacitors (with power ratings of less than 1 MW).

Pumped-Storage Hydropower

Pumped-storage hydro (PSH) facilities are large-scale energy storage plants that use gravitational force to generate electricity. Water is pumped to a higher elevation for storage during low-cost energy periods and high renewable energy generation periods. When electricity is needed, water is released back to the lower pool, generating power through turbines. Recent innovations have allowed PSH facilities to have adjustable speeds, in order to be more responsive to the needs of the energy grid, and also to operate in closed-loop systems. A closed loop PSH operates without being connected to a continuously flowing water source, unlike traditional pumped-storage hydropower, making pumped-storage hydropower an option for more locations.

In comparison to other forms of energy storage, pumped-storage hydropower can be cheaper, especially for very large capacity storage (which other technologies struggle to match). According to the Electric Power Research Institute, the installed cost for pumped-storage hydropower varies between $1,700 and $5,100/kW, compared to $2,500/kW to 3,900/kW for lithium-ion batteries. Pumped-storage hydropower is more than 80 percent energy efficient through a full cycle , and PSH facilities can typically provide 10 hours of electricity, compared to about 6 hours for lithium-ion batteries. Despite these advantages, the challenge of PSH projects is that they are long-term investments: permitting and construction can take 3-5 years each. This can scare off investors who would prefer shorter-term investments, especially in a fast-changing market.

In Bath County, Virginia, the largest pumped-hydro storage facility in the world supplies power to about 750,000 homes. It was built in 1985 and has an output of approximately 3 GW.

Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)

With compressed air storage, air is pumped into an underground hole, most likely a salt cavern, during off-peak hours when electricity is cheaper. When energy is needed, the air from the underground cave is released back up into the facility, where it is heated and the resulting expansion turns an electricity generator. This heating process usually uses natural gas, which releases carbon; however, CAES triples the energy output of facilities using natural gas alone. CAES can achieve up to 70 percent energy efficiency when the heat from the air pressure is retained, otherwise efficiency is between 42 and 55 percent. Currently, there are only two operating CAES facilities: one in McIntosh, Alabama and one in Huntorf, Germany. The McIntosh plant, which was built in 1991, has 110 MW of storage. A 317 MW CAES plant is under construction in Anderson County, Texas.

Thermal (including Molten Salt)

Thermal energy storage facilities use temperature to store energy. When energy needs to be stored, rocks, salts, water, or other materials are heated and kept in insulated environments. When energy needs to be generated, the thermal energy is released by pumping cold water onto the hot rocks, salts, or hot water in order to produce steam, which spins turbines. Thermal energy storage can also be used to heat and cool buildings instead of generating electricity. For example, thermal storage can be used to make ice overnight to cool a building during the day. Thermal efficiency can range from 50 percent to 90 percent depending on the type of thermal energy used.

Lithium-ion Batteries

First commercially produced by Sony in the early 1990s, lithium-ion batteries were originally used primarily for small-scale consumer items such as cellphones. Recently, they have been used for larger-scale battery storage and electric vehicles. At the end of 2017, the cost of a lithium-ion battery pack for electric vehicles fell to $209/kWh, assuming a cycle life of 10-15 years. Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that lithium-ion batteries will cost less than $100 kWh by 2025.

Lithium-ion batteries are by far the most popular battery storage option today and control more than 90 percent of the global grid battery storage market. Compared to other battery options, lithium-ion batteries have high energy density and are lightweight. New innovations, such as replacing graphite with silicon to increase the battery’s power capacity, are seeking to make lithium-ion batteries even more competitive for longer-term storage.

Additionally, lithium-ion batteries are now frequently used in developing countries for rural electrification. In rural communities, lithium-ion batteries are paired with solar panels to allow households and businesses to use limited amounts of electricity to charge cell phones, run appliances, and light buildings. Previously, such communities had to rely on dirty and expensive diesel generators, or did not have access to electricity.

When the Aliso Canyon natural gas facility leaked in 2015, California rushed to use lithium-ion technology to offset the loss of energy from the facility during peak hours. The battery storage facilities, built by Tesla, AES Energy Storage and Greensmith Energy, provide 70 MW of power, enough to power 20,000 houses for four hours.

Hornsdale Power Reserve in Southern Australia is the world’s largest lithium-ion battery and is used to stabilize the electrical grid with energy it receives from a nearby wind farm. This 100 MW battery was built by Tesla and provides electricity to more than 30,000 households.

General Electric has designed 1 MW lithium-ion battery containers that will be available for purchase in 2019. They will be easily transportable and will allow renewable energy facilities to have smaller, more flexible energy storage options.

Lead-acid Batteries

Lead-acid batteries were among the first battery technologies used in energy storage. However, they are not popular for grid storage because of their low-energy density and short cycle and calendar life. They were commonly used for electric cars, but have recently been largely replaced with longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries.

Flow Batteries

Flow batteries are an alternative to lithium-ion batteries. While less popular than lithium-ion batteries—flow batteries make up less than 5 percent of the battery market—flow batteries have been used in multiple energy storage projects that require longer energy storage durations. Flow batteries have relatively low energy densities and have long life cycles, which makes them well-suited for supplying continuous power. The Avista Utilities plant in Washington state, for instance, uses flow battery storage.

A 200 MW (800 MWh) flow battery is currently being constructed in Dalian, China. This system will not only overtake the Hornsdale Power Reserve as the world’s biggest battery, but it will also be the only large-scale battery (>100 MW) that is made up of flow batteries instead of lithium ion batteries.

Solid State Batteries

Solid state batteries have multiple advantages over lithium-ion batteries in large-scale grid storage. Solid-state batteries contain solid electrolytes which have higher energy densities and are much less prone to fires than liquid electrolytes, such as those found in lithium-ion batteries. Their smaller volumes and higher safety make solid-state batteries well suited for large-scale grid applications.

However, solid state battery technology is currently more expensive than lithium-ion battery technology because it is less developed. Fast-growing lithium-ion production has led to economies of scale, which solid-state batteries will find hard to match in the coming years.

Hydrogen fuel cells, which generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen, have appealing characteristics: they are reliable and quiet (with no moving parts), have a small footprint and high energy density, and release no emissions (when running on pure hydrogen, their only byproduct is water). The process can also be reversed, making it useful for energy storage: electrolysis of water produces oxygen and hydrogen. Fuel cell facilities can, therefore, produce hydrogen when electricity is cheap, and later use that hydrogen to generate electricity when it is needed (in most cases, the hydrogen is produced in one location, and used in another). Hydrogen can also be produced by reforming biogas, ethanol, or hydrocarbons, a cheaper method that emits carbon pollution. Though hydrogen fuel cells remain expensive (primarily because of their need for platinum, an expensive metal), they are being used as primary and backup power for many critical facilities (telecom relays, data centers, credit card processing…).

Flywheels are not suitable for long-term energy storage, but are very effective for load-leveling and load-shifting applications. Flywheels are known for their long-life cycle, high-energy density, low maintenance costs, and quick response speeds. Motors store energy into flywheels by accelerating their spins to very high rates (up to 50,000 rpm). The motor can later use that stored kinetic energy to generate electricity by going into reverse. Flywheels are commonly left in a vacuum so as to minimize air friction, which would slow the wheel. The Stephentown Spindle in Stephentown, New York, unveiled in 2011 with a capacity of 20 MW, was the first commercial use of flywheel technology to regulate the grid in the United States. Several other flywheel facilities have since come on line.

Storage and Electric Vehicles

Energy storage is especially important for electric vehicles (EVs). As electric vehicles become more widespread, they will increase electricity demand at peak times, as professionals come home from work and plug in their cars for a nightly recharge. To prevent the need for new power plants to meet this extra demand, electricity will need to be stored during off-peak times. Storage is also important for households that generate their own renewable electricity: a car cannot be charged overnight by solar energy without a storage system.

Interestingly, electric vehicles can be used as back-up storage during periods of grid failure or spikes in demand. Although most EVs today are not designed to supply energy back into the grid, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) cars can store electricity in car batteries and then transfer that energy back into the grid later. EV batteries can still be used in grid storage even after they are taken off the road: utilities are using the batteries from retired EVs as second-hand energy storage. Such batteries can be used to store electricity for up to a decade for grid applications. An example of this can be found in Elverlingsen, Germany, where almost 2,000 batteries from Mercedes Benz EVs were collected to create a stationary grid-sized battery that can hold almost 9 MW of power.

Federal and State Energy Storage Policies

In February 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) unanimously approved Order No. 841, which required Independent System Operators and Regional Transmission Organizations to remove barriers to entry for energy storage technologies, by having these groups reevaluate their tariffs. The FERC believes this will lead to greater market competition in the energy grid sector.

In May 2018, the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) committed up to $30 million in funding for long-term energy storage innovation. The funding went to the Duration Addition to electricitY Storage (DAYS) program, which focuses on developing new technologies that can make it possible for energy storage facilities in all U.S. regions to power an electrical grid for up to 100 hours.

Several U.S. states have taken a keen interest in energy storage, and their policies can serve as inspiration for others.

• Hawaii , where importing fossil fuels is very costly, has been at the forefront of the transition to renewables and energy storage. Two recent Hawaiian Electric Industries projects come in at 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, half as much as the price for fossil fuel generation in the state.
• Massachusetts passed H.4857 in July of 2018, setting a goal of 1,000 MWh of energy storage by the end of 2025.
• New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in January 2018 that New York had set a goal of reaching 1,500 MW's worth of energy storage by 2025. Under this directive, New York Green Bank has agreed to invest $200 million towards energy storage technologies.
• California's three largest electric cooperatives have been mandated to develop a combined storage capacity of 1,325 MW by the end of 2024. An extra 500 MW was added to the mandate in 2016.
• In Oregon, law HB 2193 mandates that 5 MWh of energy storage must be working in the grid by 2020.
• New Jersey passed A3723 in 2018 that sets New Jersey’s energy storage target at 2,000 MW by 2030.
• Arizona State Commissioner Andy Tobin has proposed a target of 3,000 MW in energy storage by 2030.

For the endnotes, please download the PDF version of this fact sheet .

Author: Alexandra Zablocki

Editors: Carol Werner, Amaury Laporte

Energy Storage Technologies for Modern Power Systems: A Detailed Analysis of Functionalities, Potentials, and Impacts

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Energy Storage Technologies Essay

Applications, compressed air energy storage, flywheel storage, thermal energy storage.

Energy can be stored in Lead-Acid (LA), Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd), and Sodium-Sulphur (NaS) large-scale batteries, which function when two electrodes are immersed in an electrolyte to allow a chemical reaction and subsequent production of power.

Batteries are used in situations that require short bursts of strong power, portable and rechargeable power, and low steady power over a long time. Additionally, they can be used as backup energy (Connolly, 2009).

LA batteries cost between $200/kW and $300/kW although the outlay may elevate to $580/kW, NaS batteries cost $810/kW, and NiCd batteries cost $600/kW (Connolly, 2009).

Advantage/Disadvantage

Although most batteries are flexible, portable and respond at full power within milliseconds, they are extremely sensitive to environmental contexts as sharp shifts in temperature cut their life substantially (Connolly, 2009).

The future is bright as batteries have low production and maintenance costs, can be used in multiple situations, (Connolly, 2009), and are environmentally friendly (Perfomak, 2012).

This facility “comprises a power train motor that drives a compressor (to compress the air into the cavern), high pressure turbine (HBT), a low pressure turbine (LPT), and a generator” (Connolly, 2009 p. 11). The facility functions by releasing pre-compressed air produced using cheaper off-peak base load electricity to drive a motor which generates electricity.

The facility is a large-scale energy storage technique, therefore very ideal in areas requiring bulk energy supply and demand, settings necessitating recurrent start-ups and shutdowns, and also in ancillary services such as frequency regulation, load following, and voltage management (Connolly, 2009)

The cost is between $425/kW and $450/kW, whereas maintenance cost is between $3/kW and $10/kW.

The facility does not suffer from efficiency reduction reminiscent of other traditional gas turbines, or from excessive heat when operating on partial load; however, a major disadvantage is that it is dependent on geographical location (Connolly, 2009).

Facility developments are expected to take place in the future, with the U.S. and Europe expected to take the lead as they have tolerable geologic characteristics for the development of underground reservoirs (Connolly, 2009).

Flywheel technology is able to store “energy by accelerating the rotor/flywheel to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as kinetic energy” (Connolly, 2009 p. 22). Energy is then released for useful purposes by reversing the charging procedure to provide capacity for the motor to be used as a generator.

Flywheels are mostly used for power quality improvements, particularly in environments affected by frequency discrepancies or served by unbalanced electrical output (Perfomak, 2012)

Currently, flywheel applications “cost between $200/kWh to $300/kWh for low speed flywheels, and $25,000/kWh for high-speed flywheels” (Connolly, 2009 p. 23)

Flywheels have a tremendously quick dynamic response, long life, need little maintenance and are more environmentally responsive, but it is difficult to transfer the needs of one application to another due to design issues (Connolly, 2009).

The technology has a bright future due to low maintenance costs and capacity to operate optimally even under challenging environmental conditions.

This technology stores energy in a thermal reservoir, with the view to recovering it at a later date for use. There exist two types, namely air-conditioning thermal energy storage (ACTES) and thermal energy storage system (TESS)

ACTES creates ice that is utilized to provide the cooling load for the air conditioner, whereas TESS is often used to improve the flexibility within an energy system (Connolly, 2009).

The cost for ACTES is between $250 and $500 per peak kW, whereas that of TESS is much lower as it only combines the electricity and heat sectors with one another (Connolly, 2009).

A major advantage is low maintenance costs, whereas a major disadvantage for this energy storage technology is that it cannot be implemented as a standalone project.

The future is bright for both ACTES and TESS due to the number of flourishing installations that have already been implemented in the market.

Connolly, D. (2009). A Review of energy storage technology for the integration of fluctuating renewable energy . Retrieved from http://dconnolly.net/

Perfomak, P.W. (2012). Energy storage for power grids and electric transportations: A technology assessment . Congressional Research Service. Retrieved from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42455.pdf

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Batteries are a key part of the energy transition. Here’s why

With electric vehicle use on the rise, demand for lithium-ion batteries has increased. Image:  Unsplash/Michael Fousert

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Stay up to date:.

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• Demand for battery storage has seen exponential growth in recent years.
• But the battery technical revolution is just beginning, explains Simon Engelke, founder and chair of Battery Associates .
• Investment has poured into the battery industry to develop sustainable storage solutions that support the energy transition.

As the world increasingly swaps fossil fuel power for emissions-free electrification, batteries are becoming a vital storage tool to facilitate the energy transition.

Lithium-Ion batteries first appeared commercially in the early 1990s and are now the go-to choice to power everything from mobile phones to electric vehicles and drones.

Demand for Lithium-Ion batteries to power electric vehicles and energy storage has seen exponential growth, increasing from just 0.5 gigawatt-hours in 2010 to around 526 gigawatt hours a decade later. Demand is projected to increase 17-fold by 2030, bringing the cost of battery storage down, according to Bloomberg.

It’s an annual meeting featuring top examples of public-private cooperation and Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies being used to develop the sustainable development agenda.

It runs alongside the United Nations General Assembly, which this year features a one-day climate summit. This is timely given rising public fears – and citizen action – over weather conditions, pollution, ocean health and dwindling wildlife. It also reflects the understanding of the growing business case for action.

The UN’s Strategic Development Goals and the Paris Agreement provide the architecture for resolving many of these challenges. But to achieve this, we need to change the patterns of production, operation and consumption.

The World Economic Forum’s work is key, with the summit offering the opportunity to debate, discuss and engage on these issues at a global policy level.

Dr Simon Engelke is founder and chair of Battery Associates , an organization working to accelerate sustainable battery solutions and innovations. Here, he gives expert insights into the world of batteries.

Q. What are the main types of battery in use today and how are they different?

There are two main kinds of batteries you’ll probably be familiar with. Lithium-ion batteries power things like our phones and electric or hybrid vehicles, and lead acid batteries that are used to start cars with internal combustion engines and store power for the car’s lights, radio and other devices. The main difference is the energy density. You can put more energy into a lithium-Ion battery than lead acid batteries, and they last much longer. That’s why lithium-Ion batteries are used in so many applications and are replacing lead acid batteries for things like transport and grid applications.

Q. What are batteries made from and how do they work?

Batteries are made from a variety of different materials. As the name of the most-common type of battery in use today implies, lithium-ion batteries are made of lithium ions but also contain other materials, such as nickel, manganese and cobalt. They work by converting electrical energy into chemical energy, which allows us to store electricity in a very dense form.

Have you read?

Your house could become a rechargeable cement battery. here’s how, how carmakers' switch to electric vehicles will strain supply of battery minerals, nearly half of all prospective new car buyers are thinking of going electric, q. are batteries a safe means of storing electricity.

I would say safety is priority number one for the industry. New technologies and better monitoring are making batteries a very safe way to store electricity. In an electric vehicle one battery cell might stop working, for example, but if it is designed safely it won’t affect the whole vehicle. The key safety aspects with lithium-Ion batteries are how they are put together and monitored. The worst outcome involves thermal runaway, or an explosion. This would be a major concern for big battery installations like the ones used to store renewable energy, but they operate in a very controlled environment.

Q. What happens to battery waste? Can used batteries be recycled to form part of the circular economy?

Recycling battery components is extremely important, both from a materials standpoint and an environmental one. Not only do we use and reuse the battery itself by charging and discharging it, at the end of its life it can be taken apart and the components recycled to make new batteries.

We have created a circular economy throughout the battery industry, which is both unique and exciting. It’s really about optimizing the recycling process for each battery type to guarantee the circular economy is cost effective from every different standpoint. But circularity shouldn’t be limited to batteries, it can apply to everything from steel to plastic and you really want to create a circular loop for the future.

Q. How can batteries help to electrify sectors like transport and energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Transport today generates about 30% of global emissions, so reducing this is very important. In most countries, although upfront costs are higher it is cheaper to run an electric vehicle than a fossil fuel car, which encourages consumers to make the switch and help decarbonize road transport. Advances in battery technology have made batteries a key component for the sustainable travel of the future. The energy stored in these batteries on wheels can be used to actually power your home and to help stabilise the grid. Batteries are one of these platform technologies that can be used to improve the state of the world and combat climate change.

Q. Will growing demand for battery storage as we shift towards renewable energy put pressure on resources like lithium

The resource question is an important one. Although lithium-Ion batteries contain a very small amount of lithium, the predicted growth of demand for these batteries could put pressure on supply chains for materials like lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite. And it’s essential that supply chains operate in an ethical way. Initiatives like the Global Battery Alliance , a partnership of more than 60 member organizations initiated by the World Economic Forum in 2017, bring together all the stakeholders from around the world to ensure battery supply chains are ethical, green and managed properly. It’s important that traceability exists and that the industry scales-up in the right way, to safeguard labour, protect the environment and avoid exploitation in mining operations and other parts of the supply chain.

Q. What new developments in battery technology can we expect to see?

Near-term, we should see existing processes being optimized, small tweaks that can actually have a big impact on battery costs and energy density. Looking further forward, there are new technologies anticipated, such as Solid State batteries, which people have been working on for some time. We should also see new chemistries, such as sodium ion batteries that some major producers are exploring. A lot of resources and investment is moving into this industry. This not only impacts batteries themselves, but allows other industries connected to batteries to be optimized, such as new mining technologies, battery cycling innovation, integration, charging infrastructure and vehicle-to-grid applications. Alongside this, if you have been following the news you will see headlines announcing bigger and bigger capacity battery installations to store surplus renewable energy. I think this trend will continue into the future.

Q. What excites you most about the future opportunities for battery technologies?

I see battery technologies as a really strong vehicle to decarbonize transport and energy, to help combat climate change. The battery industry is still in its early development stages, although it might seem big there is a great deal more to come.

Think about when personal computing came around, when smartphones came around; batteries have the same potential to bring about a technology revolution. That’s why this is an exciting time for the battery industry.

Solutions to global challenges will be the focus of the World Economic Forum’s upcoming Sustainable Development Impact Summit . The virtual four-day event is hosted alongside the United Nations General Assembly and brings together global leaders from business, government, and civil society.

It will focus on new technologies, policies and partnerships to advance cooperation and accelerate progress.

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Essay on Energy Storage System | Energy Management

Here is an essay on ‘Energy Storage System’ for class 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Energy Storage System’ especially written for school and college students.

Essay on Energy Storage System

Essay Contents:

• Essay on the Storage System for Solar Plants

Essay # 1. Introduction to Energy Storage System:

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An energy storage system is required to meet the difference between the energy demand by the customer and energy supply by the power plant. It is very important for solar, wind energy and other renewable forms of energy because these are intermittent in nature.

The energy storage systems can be classified as follows:

i. Mechanical energy storage. Flywheel energy storage, pumped hydro power storage and compressed air energy storage.

ii. Thermal and thermochemical energy storage, and

iii. Electrical energy storage. Battery storage and magnetic field energy storage.

Essay # 2. Characteristics of Energy Storage System:

An energy storage system is characterised by the following performance char­acteristics:

1. Storage capacity.

2. Energy density.

3. Charging and discharging rate.

4. Storage duration.

5. Storage efficiency.

1. Storage Capacity :

An energy storage system consists of a reservoir which contains a storage medium. Storage capacity is the maximum energy quantity stored in one cycle.

A hot water storage system has the following capacity:

E = m C p (t i -t f ) [kJ]

m = mass of water [kg]

C p = 4.186 kJ/kg-K

= Specific heat of water

t i = initial temperature [°C]

t f = final temperature [°C]

2. Energy Density :

Energy density of a storage system is the energy stored per kg or m 3 of storage medium:

e = E/m [kJ/kg]

The energy density of various storage media and systems are given in Table 20.1.

3. Charging and Discharging Rate :

Charging rate is the amount of energy supplied to the storage system per unit time. The discharging rate is the amount of energy withdrawn from the storage system per unit time.

4. Storage Duration :

The operating cycle of an energy storage system consists of:

i. Charging from an energy source,

ii. Energy storage in the system,

iii. Withdrawal of energy from the system and supply to the consumer.

The total storage cycle time:

τ = τ c + τ s + τ d

τ c = charging duration

τ s = storage duration

τ d = = discharging duration

A hot water storage system may have storage duration for 8 to 24 hours. In other solar heating plants, storage duration may be for a few months.

5. Storage Efficiency:

The storage efficiency may be defined as the ratio of discharged energy to charged energy.

The flywheel energy:

The pumping power required:

When electrical demand is low, the spare power is used to drive air com­pressor with the help of motor. The cooled air is stored in the underground reservoir. When demand is high, the compressed air from the underground is used to drive gas turbine to meet the peak loads.

Presently, there are only two compressed air storage systems operating in the world.

The specifications of Huntorf of (Germany) storage system are:

A 12-V lead-acid battery supplies a current of 60A. Calculate the power output and consumption of H 2 SO 4 .

Packed Bed Storage System:

Concrete, earth, rock, gravel and granite are suitable materials for low tempera­ture heat storage. In a solar air heater vertical pebble bed heat storage is used. During charging hot air from solar collector flows from the top of pebble bed. There is thermal stratification and the upper and lower beds are at different temperatures, i.e., the upper bed is at higher temperature than lower bed.

During discharging the cold air enters at the bottom of the bed and hot air leaves at the top. The thermal stratification helps to get air at higher temperature from the bed top. The temperature difference between air and pebbles is small due to large surface area of the bed and high air-to-pebble heat transfer coefficient.

The storage capacity is given by:

Q s = Q (1 – ԑ) ρ p – C(t max – t min ) [J]

Q = Storage volume [m 3 ]

ԑ = Pebble bed porosity

C = Specific heat of pebbles [J/kg-K]

ρ = Density of pebble [kg/m 3 ]

t max = max. Temperature of storage [°C]

t min = temperature of storage [°C]

Latent Heat Storage System:

The storage capacity can be calculated as follows:

Q s = m[C s (t m – t min ) + h m + C l (t max – t m )] [J]

m = mass of storage material [kg]

C S = Specific heat of storage material in liquid state [J/kg-K]

C l = Specific heat of storage material in liquid state [J /kg-K]

h m = heat of fusion of storage material [J/kg]

t max = maximum storage temperature [°C]

t min = minimum storage temperature [°C]

t m = fusion temperature of storage material [°C]

The storage capacity includes major part of latent heat and some part of sensible heat.

The charging process consists of:

1. Heating of storage material in solid state from initial temperature (t min ) to melting point (t m ). This is sensible heat of storage.

2. Melting of storage material at t m . This is latent heat of storage.

3. Heating of liquid storage material to maximum temperature (t max ), this is also sensible heat of storage.

The discharging process follows the reverse process and consists of:

1. The cooling of liquid from t max to t m .

2. Solidification (crystallization) at t m .

3. Cooling of material in solid state from t m to t min .

Storage Material:

The efficient operation of latent heat storage system depends upon proper selection of storage material.

1. It should have large heat of fusion.

2. It should have large specific heats.

3. The melting point of material should be within the working range of storage system.

4. The material should have physical and chemical stability.

5. The volume change during melting and fusion should be minimal.

6. The thermal conductivity should not be very low.

The main advantage of latent heat storage system is reduction in the mass and volume of the material and the system.

The comparative indices of latent heat and sensible storage system are given in Table 20.2.

The following problems are faced in the low-temperature latent heat storage system:

1. There can be sub-cooling of liquid below the melting point during dis­charging process.

2. There are substantial changes in the volume during phase change.

3. Heat transfer rate can be very low between the working fluid and stor­age material.

These difficulties can be overcome by the use of hybrid system.

There can be a hybrid heat storage system. The sensible heat storage has water as storage material and latent heat storage system has paraffin.

The total storage capacity of a hybrid plant can be calculated as follows:

Q hs = [m s C s (t max – t min ) + m l [c’ s (t s – t min )] + h m + C l (t max – t m )] [J]

m s = mass of sensible heat storage material [kg]

m l = mass of liquid [kg]

C s = Specific heat of sensible heat storage material [J/kg-k]

c’ s = Specific heat of latent heat storage material in solid phase [ J/kg- k]

c l = Specific heat of latent heat storage material in liquid phase [J/kg-k]

t m = melting point of latent heat storage material [°C]

h m = heat of fusion of latent heat storage material [J/kg]

Medium and High Temperature Storage:

Thermal energy storage system for medium and high temperature applications are very important for solar plants used for power generation, process heat, refrigeration and space cooling. The high temperature storage plant (above 500°C) can enhance the performance and availability of a solar power plant. The storage capacity should be sufficient to ensure full-load operation of solar power plant for ½ to 3 hours.

1. Medium Temperature Storage Systems :

The following materials and systems can be used for medium temperature storage systems:

The thermo-physical properties of storage materials used for medium tem­peratures are given in Table 20.4.

2. Steam Storage System:

Hot water is used as storage material. Steam is supplied through nozzles and pressure of storage tank increases from p 1 to p 2 . The steam gets condensed due to mixing with water. There is a temperature rise from t 1 to t 2 and enthalpy rise from h 1 to h 2 .

The mass of steam supplied can be determined from the equation of balance of storage energy.

Essay # 7. Thermochemical Energy Storage System :

Heat of reaction of reversible chemical reactions is used to store energy. The system is suitable for storing solar energy. An endothermic reaction is used for energy storage. Steam reforming of methane or dissociation of sulphur trixoide, methanol or ammonia is used and reaction takes place at 500°C and more in the presence of a catalyst. The reaction products can be stored locally or transported in a pipeline to the energy consumer location. At the consumer point, an exo­thermic reaction takes place and heat is released due to recombination of reac­tion products.

This system has the following advantages:

i. It has high energy density

ii. The energy losses during storage and transport are negligible.

Examples of reactions: