Giant £40 Million Battery for the UK
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 09.14.07
UK electricity company, Eon, are planning to build a huge battery to store power from sustainable electricity sources. Because sources like wind and solar aren't constantly reliable, some kind of storage is necessary if a 100% sustainable grid is to be created in the future. This is especially true of solar power in the UK, where sunshine is as elusive as an honest politician.
Eon's scientists are planning the battery in Nottingham, which will be able to old one megawatt for anything up to four hours. The Guardian helpfully put this into an easily accessible comparison for its readers, "the equivalent to 10 million AA batteries and the same size as four articulated lorry containers." Smaller scale projects have already been underway for some time, but this humongous battery should be completed in autumn 2009.
Bob Taylor of Eon said, "Green power is only generated from wind farms when the wind blows and that might not be when the power's needed by customers. By researching and developing this battery we can store the power generated by wind farms any time and then use it when our customers need it the most. The storage system will also help the development of localised generation. For example, a school with solar panels can store the power generated at weekends and use it when the kids are back in school." ::Guardian
Isn't 1 megawatt of storage inconsequential?
For seriously large energy storage I still prefer pumping water up into reservoirs then running it back down through turbines during times of need. Might not be as compact or efficient, but less chemicals involved, and greater storage and durability.
Wouldn't it be greener to use the wind/solar electricity to create hydrogen and store it? Then use the stored hydrogen to generate electricity in times of need. That way you're storing electricity for future use in the form of hydrogen. There is some energy loss. But the hydrogen lasts longer than four hours and doesn't have the environmental impact of creating and disposing of massive batteries. You put the hydrogen power plant by the sea, use sea water to make the hydrogen and return the water created in hydrogen power production back into the sea.
there was another story short time ago about someone looking at storing air pressure underground for reuse later. i think they should try them all and see what works.
tho obvious storing water or air etc my not be applicable in all applications. especially on small or very metro areas where locations for water or air stores are not safe or available
I sincerely hope that's a typo. $60million for a 4 megawatt hour battery is ridiculous. I put a 40 kilowatt hour battery system (to go along with 2.5 kw solar) into my folk's house for less than 8k. Multiplied by 100 that works out to be less than 1.5% of what they're spending. And I used industrial 20 year batteries.
They should check out the large scale power storage sysems offered by Beacon Power.
www.beaconpower.com