Energy Storage Essential For Europe

Matt Cunningham, sales director, grid solutions at GE, believes there remains a huge disconnect between industries and their awareness of the scope for energy storage in Europe. GE has made several developments in Africa, North America and Asia in the investment of energy storage across a number of industries. In Europe, there is plenty of investment in compressed air energy storage (CAES) technologies. However, Europe remains relatively distant from the opportunities that electrical energy storage holds for grid infrastructure. "We have a number of ongoing projects, where we are looking at tidal systems as part of storage. We are working with wind developers, and hybrid energy solutions to charge batteries, but this all tends to be in markets outside of Europe where energy prices fluctuate," said Cunningham. In truth, a lot of money is being spent in Europe through a range of funding systems on more energy concepts, but uptake is proving a lot slower compared to other regions. Cunningham believes there still remains bigger opportunity for energy storage in Europe because power density continues to rise and costs are decreasing as a result. "We need to see more of a requirement from the grid operators. GE has made the necessary investments but it's hard to project all the ideas. It is now our job to push down these barriers." To achieve this, one of GE's major advancements has focussed on the development of a new type of battery energy. Designed to counter the negative effects of solar power, in addition to providing a cost effective solution for energy storage, these new batteries will be responsive to demand by releasing energy power during peak periods. "With energy storage, there are a few key parameters define a system. One is to identify the peak amount of energy you want to store or extract at any one time, whether it's a kilowatt or a megawatt, and another is the time for energy to be charged/discharged," said Cunningham. Energy storage has not proved overly popular in European markets so far, but GE has still been active in some of the continent's smaller markets. In Ireland, the company has been working with grid operators and developers on implementing flywheel technology and battery storage to support wind turbines, and vanadium flow batteries to support industrial customers with high peak energy demands. It has also implemented a small storage system for a tidal developer, in addition to providing energy solutions for a subsea cable system, which it will look to roll out further in 2015. In ships across Europe, GE is providing power from batteries when they are in harbour or in green areas. This has also extended to providing capabilities on drilling rigs in the oil sector, providing support for any disasters that might occur. "Should the vessel have a blackout, we provide support case solutions that limits the amount of damage," says Cunningham. As a result, GE is able to provide a high value energy storage capability that supports shutting down the rig in question in a safe way, before power is re-established again. These solutions specifically cater to reducing the impact a GE battery will have on the overall facility or product. Cunningham recalls the problems that users had with Dell Laptops, which were blowing up as lithium ion batteries began to explode. He says GE is now committed to working with manufacturers to ensure that all ESS systems supplied by GE use batteries that are inherently safe, even under fault conditions. "There is now a lot of research with manufacturers to bring down operating temperature, and package these solutions more successfully so it can be contained," he says. "Even if there is a fault with the battery, there will not be any collateral damage caused." On the other side of the coin, the fact remains that global industries across the globe are beginning to place an over reliance on wind and solar power. This is resulting in a need for better and more innovative solutions around wind energy. GE's work around energy storage is predominantly designed to create a common, proven and reliable front end solution that decouples the energy medium from the grid. One of the key challenges facing GE in developing this type of vital technology is finding a solution designed to overcome the issues of irregular demand as well as a lack of supply. And these innovations are proving critical. While the world is slowly moving towards solutions that are powered by solar and wind energy in a bid to reduce the reliance of fossil fuels, the reality of the limitations of this type of energy is there for all to see. Of course, the wind does not always blow and indeed, no-one can control how much the sun shines.

Source: bio-energy-today.blogspot.com