Geothermal energy and ocean thermal energy conversion are baseload, so they intrinsically are preferred over intermittent sources. The problem with solar energy and wind energy is that the Sun only shines a few hours each day and the winds come and go. If a utility had the ideal water reservoir at elevation from their solar farm, that would work well, as pumped storage can be effective if you don't need to build that reservoir. But for residences and most utility applications, you are left with batteries, flywheels and compressed air:
Ignore the Orange box as too fossil fuel and the Yellow one as too expensive for now.
About a year and a half ago, I posted on Danielle Fong, who had an idea about using compressed gas. Her company, LightSail Energy, has announced shipment of their pilot unit later this year. If the promise shown to the left pans out, she will become a billionaire. However, I worry that she tends to move on at will, for she dropped out of junior high school at 12 to attend Dalhousie University, but did graduate at the age of 17. But she left Princeton's plasma physics department without completing the program. On the other hand, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg also left college and became famous.
Flywheels started poorly, as with a $43 million Department of Energy Loan, Beacon Power went bankrupt two years ago after building a 20 MW prototype. But they re-financed and only a few weeks ago came back to life. Better yet, their 20 MW flywheel has been commercially operating for a year and a half and, apparently, doing okay. Velkess and various universities are also trying to develop this pathway.
Most of the developmental action is occurring with batteries. Last year, Arizona's largest utility, APS, tested a 1.5 MWHr system (would be the equivalent of 1200 hybrid Prius or 300,000 cell phones). This application would work best when storage occurs at peak insolation, then dispatched in the early evening when demand surges and the sun is setting. Clearly, batteries would improve power quality for solar and wind farms.
For residences, it is, indeed hard to believe that the PV panels you place on your roof will not power your home if there is a severe hurricane or other emergency cutting off the utility. Has something to do with the inverter, and, maybe company policy, too. However, there is such a device as a bidirectional inverter which can solve this problem if your local utility will allow this interface. According to that article, this device costs $6000, and add $4000 worth of batteries for 24 kWH of electricity. Another system is pictured to the right.
Most of the developmental action is occurring with batteries. Last year, Arizona's largest utility, APS, tested a 1.5 MWHr system (would be the equivalent of 1200 hybrid Prius or 300,000 cell phones). This application would work best when storage occurs at peak insolation, then dispatched in the early evening when demand surges and the sun is setting. Clearly, batteries would improve power quality for solar and wind farms.
For residences, it is, indeed hard to believe that the PV panels you place on your roof will not power your home if there is a severe hurricane or other emergency cutting off the utility. Has something to do with the inverter, and, maybe company policy, too. However, there is such a device as a bidirectional inverter which can solve this problem if your local utility will allow this interface. According to that article, this device costs $6000, and add $4000 worth of batteries for 24 kWH of electricity. Another system is pictured to the right.
It was reported that just three years ago the Intersolar conference only had only a dozen energy storage companies. Last week, the gathering in San Francisco had more than 200. Just the market for PV solar storage, only $200 million last year, is expected to zoom up to $19 billion by 2017.
The renewable skeptic would of course point out that a natural gas generator would be a lot cheaper than all the above. While a hydrogen powered fuel cell system would conversely be way to expensive, as this field matures, efforts will be made to electrolyze water into hydrogen so that over time, perhaps, a severe carbon tax could make this next generation option more competitive, especially if lower cost electricity can be utilized during the wee hours of the morning. This would then be that mythical hydrogen economy:
I can't leave this field without at least mentioning electric vehicles, especially the push towards plug-in EVs. An article from The Economist last month indicated that electric cars are stalling in the race to become the green wheels of the future. Worse: "That is not a tragedy." Mind you, electricity rates in Europe vary widely (Denmark's are up to 40 cents/kWh), but in general are double that of the U.S. So you would think that this region, with a higher environmental sense than the U.S., should be pioneering plug-in vehicles. The article mentions those failures (Coda, Better Place, Fisker). Fiat-Chrysler sells an EV at $32,000, but loses $10,000 with each sale. It makes fun of Obama, prattling that America will by 2015 have a million electric cars, but is today only 5% there, and reminded the reader that Angela Merkel picked the same 1 million target, but by 2020, with Germany last year only selling 3000 such vehicles. Obama apparently wants to increase the Federal credit from $7500 to $10,000, while China is thinking about $9800. The bottom line is that, while electric cars will be part of the solution, it will not be the whole answer. Further, government should not pick winners, but allow the marketplace to decide. These statements came from that Economist article.
Hate to report that A123, a lithium-ion battery manufacturer spent $132 million of federal stimulus funds, and filed for bankruptcy. How can our USDOE keep picking losers? Guess what, though, a Chinese automotive parts company bought A123's technology. Toyota reported that lithium batteries are just too expensive and they, too, are losing money for every RAV4 EV they sell.
I received an e-mail from a noted battery specialist at the University of Hawaii, who sent me a reference to help decision-making, a link provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. Hawaii's equivalent EV fuel cost is about the same as the current national price of gasoline, which is hardly attractive. But that is because we pay three times the electricity rate of the national average. Then, when you add the analysis for, say, the Nissan Leaf: it is the same car as the Versa, which is half the cost with four times the range, and no need to worry about charging the car. It makes little sense in Hawaii to get a Leaf, but this friend of mine plans to purchase a BMW i3 (base price of $42K)when it becomes available in January because he is rich and can embrace sustainability without really needing to justify the economics. Hmm, nice looking car (right). I responded to him:
There is a necessary and difficult transition for any new system, and in my heart I do want EVs to eventually prevail. This is why the world needs people like you to help carry these innovations through this period.
I have other colleagues of similar affluence and consciousness I mostly commend. The field needs more of them to bridge a better future. I really should cut out this current realism streak in me and accentuate the positives. Maybe from tomorrow.
Finally, Argonne National Laboratory was selected as the innovation hub for batteries and energy storage. Why did this not happen a quarter century ago? The U.S. has no really useful patents for the lithium battery. How much do you want to bet that we won't invent anything new but improve the packaging of these batteries? I say on to the Direct Methanol Fuel Cell.
To conclude, here is a comprehensive overview of energy storage from Renewable Energy World by Markus Elsaesser, CEO of Solar Promotion:
As Solar Costs Drop, Energy Storage Solutions Take Center Stage
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