Football Pitch-Sized Batteries Could Change the World of Renewable Energy
The Engineer posted on January 09, 2012 | | 6736 views


 Eric Wesoff, an industry analyst with Greentech Media, explains that, "A wind farm only works when the blades are spinning. It might have a nameplate capacity of 100 megawatts, but it never puts out that much. Sometimes it's 70; sometimes it's nothing. To a grid operator, that kind of resource is a headache rather than an aspirin." To overcome these fluctuations energy storage systems can be used to store excess power at peak generating times and release it when needed to provide a more constant level. "So now that 100-MW wind farm can say, 'We're a 40-MW, steady-state, 24/7 energy source'-more like a coal plant. That's more valuable to society."

 The most abundant energy storage system in use around the world is the battery, but producing giant batteries for the electrical grid has always been very expensive. Lots of research has been done into small batteries for mobile phones and MP3 players, etc. and now, according to Haresh Kamath, program manager for energy-storage research at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). "The research applied to those industries is now being applied to batteries for the grid." In fact the world's largest battery array, a $500 million system capable of storing 36 megawatt-hours of electricity, has recently been completed in China by the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) and the electric car maker BYD. As part of China's push toward a smart grid system for renewable energy, the battery has been hooked up to 140 megawatts of solar and wind power generation as well as a smart grid transmission system. And we can expect more of these battery facilities after the Deputy Director of China's National Energy Administration called it the model for the future of Chinese renewable energy development.


 Giant Batteries for the grid have been seriously discussed for several years and are a very popular idea. In fact, Rubenius estimates that the grid battery market will be worth US $30 billion per year, "plus or minus $5 billion," says Jacob Rikard Nielsen, vice president of business development. "Of course, that's not going to materialize tomorrow. But as the technology matures and utilities gain experience, we'll get to that market status in the next 10 years. I'm quite optimistic."


By. James Burgess of