Croissants are made by pressing and folding dough to create a layered pastry. The researchers applied this technique to a dielectric capacitor, which is a device that stores energy like a battery.
By pressing and folding a polymer film capacitor — a capacitor with an insulating plastic film — they were able to store 30 times more energy than the best-performing commercially available dielectric capacitor, biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP).
The study, published today (October 18, 2019) in the journal Nature Communications, shows that this is the highest energy density ever reported in a polymer film capacitor.
Renewable and sustainable energy sources like solar and wind are intermittent by nature and to make them of wider practical use it is necessary to develop efficient, low-cost and environmentally-friendly electric energy storage systems.
Dr. Emiliano Bilotti, lead researcher of the study from Queen Mary University of London, said: “Storing energy can be surprisingly tricky and expensive and this is problematic with renewable energy sources which are not constant and rely on nature. With this technique, we can store large amounts of renewable energy to be used when the sun is not shining and it is not windy.”
Currently, there are three main energy storage options: batteries, electrochemical capacitors, and dielectric capacitors.
Dielectric capacitors typically have ultrahigh power density, which makes them suitable for high power and pulse power technologies that require accumulating energy over a period of time and then releasing it very quickly. Examples of this include motor drives, mobile power systems, space vehicle power systems, and electrochemical guns.
However, dielectric capacitors are limited by the low amounts of energy they can currently store. This research study tackles this limitation.
Professor Mike Reece, another author of the study from Queen Mary University of London, said: “This finding promises to have a significant impact on the field of pulse power applications and could produce a step change in the field of dielectric capacitors, so far limited by their low energy storage density.”
Expensive and complex synthesis and processing routes are normally necessary to achieve high energy density in polymer film capacitors but this newly developed processing, pressing and folding, is unique for its simplicity, record high energy density and potential to be adopted by industry.
Despite the games of the new government with “green” tariffs, which we wrote about earlier, the development of renewable energy remains an important and promising vector for Ukraine. According to the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers, today about 15000 households in our country use “eco friendly” electricity by installing solar panels with a total capacity of 350 MW.
Given the growing interest of
local consumers in this issue, we propose to consider it on the other side and
find out what are solar panels made of in Ukraine?
The functioning of these
devices is based on the photoelectric effect, which converts the sun’s rays
into electricity. This process occurs by transferring photon energy to the
electrons of the material from which the panels are made. The effectiveness of
the entire installation depends on the characteristics of this material.
Scientists around
the world are trying to find new materials and their combinations to increase
the productivity of solar panels. Today they are made from polymers, selenides,
copper, cadmium telluride, etc. But models of silicon remain the most optimal
option in terms of price-quality ratio.
Silicon solar panels exist in two types:
– monocrystalline – consist of thin plates of
silicon crystals with a high degree of purification;
– polycrystalline – a cheaper, but less
effective option, for the production of which use dissimilar silicon crystals
and various impurities, fusing them together.
Polycrystalline silicon is the main raw
material for the manufacture of these devices, it is contained in quartzite. On
the territory of Ukraine there is a unique deposit with the highest content of
silica in quartzite (more than 99%), which has no analogues in Europe – this is
the Banytsky quarry in the Sumy region. But, since it is privately owned, more
than 90% of the production goes for export.
According to experts, large reserves of
quartzite are concentrated in Ukraine (in the Zhytomyr, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky
regions). However, some deposits are not developed. For active deposits, it is
more profitable to export raw materials than to supply it to the local market,
which is satisfied with imported silicon of Chinese or Turkish origin.
Without a change in state policy on this issue
and foreign economic indicators of the silicon market, the situation is
unlikely to change in the near future. But this will not become a barrier to
the development of alternative energy in Ukraine and the production of solar
panels on its territory.
The most powerful floating solar PV plant in Europe was inaugurated in southern France on Friday (18 October), marking another milestone in the development of solar energy.
The Rhône valley in southern France is best known for its fine wines and gorgeous food. Now, it can also add solar power to its list of attractions.
The O’MEGA1 project is a 17 megawatt (MW) solar plant situated in Piolenc, a commune in the Vaucluse department, near Orange and Avignon.
The project is unique in several ways. To start with, it is the largest in Europe based on floating solar technology. According to its promoters, the floating structure helps reduce conflicts over land use because it can be installed on drinking water reservoirs, industrial pools, flood plains or quarry lakes.
Citizen energy
But the solar plant also innovates in its local community dimension, with citizens invited to take a stake in the project. Marking a first in France, the plant’s capital was opened to physical people who have a home in the Vaucluse or in neighbouring departments.
“Today, as well as inaugurating Europe’s largest floating solar plant, we are showing that fighting climate change requires a collective effort,” said Eric Scotto, chairman and co-founder of Akuo Energy, the solar PV developer.
“The aim of this approach is to encourage citizens to become involved in the financing of the energy transition using the region’s stakeholders,” Akuo said in a statement.
‘Green electricity of controlled origin’ label
The project’s innovative aspect doesn’t stop there. Akuo Energy also teamed up with an independent electricity supplier, Plüm Energie, to develop a “green electricity of controlled origin” label, which will be the first of its kind in France.
“This offer guarantees its future clients 100% renewable energy produced exclusively in France, hence creating value in this country,” Akuo said.
Works on the O’MEGA1 project started in 2014, on the site of an old quarry that was converted into a lake. The plant is now officially inaugurated today, in presence of French ecology minister Elisabeth Borne and her secretary of state, Brune Poirson.
According to its promoters, the plant’s annual output will be sufficient to power 4,733 homes, avoiding the emission of 1,096 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
‘Immense’ potential
This is tiny compared to the 1,500 MW of an offshore wind farm such as Hywind in Scotland, which can power up to 1 million homes. But the industry says a myriad of similar projects could see the light in the coming years.
“The market potential for floating PV is immense, with a recent study from the World Bank showing that if only 1% of artificial reservoir surfaces were used, the global capacity for floating solar would amount to 400 GW,” said Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, a trade group.
“Floating solar plants are an innovative and proven market sector on a rapid upward trajectory, and a perfect solution for countries with restricted or under–utilised land areas,” Hemetsberger told EURACTIV.
In France, the potential of floating solar is estimated at 20 gigawatts (GW), spread over a potential 1,300 sites – mainly old industrial areas, hydropower dams and water reservoirs.
“There is sufficient potential for us to develop the technology and replicate it on an industrial scale,” said Alexandra Sombsthay, director at Akuo in charge of external relations.
And several projects are already underway in Europe. In Belgium, the Flemish government announced six floating PV projects totaling 11.1 MW earlier in January. In Portugal, there are plans for a hybrid hydro-solar project which involves installing floating solar panels on a reservoir to supplement an existing hydro plant.
According to Hemetsberger, “There is a terawatt-scale opportunity for floating solar, and we are confident that in the coming years many projects will follow Akuo’s lead.”
Recently,
in the information space, we can often find analytical materials regarding
possible changes in Ukrainian legislation in the field of “green” energy. Most
of them contained pessimistic forecasts and frightened the owners of solar and
wind generating systems by lowering “green” tariffs and introducing various
restrictions.
But the
law adopted on July 11 this year to amend the existing Law of Ukraine “On
Alternative Energy Sources” allows you to install solar power plants on land
plots of a house with a capacity of up to 30 kW until 2030 and receive a
“green” tariff for electricity which sent to the power system, as well as
coefficients are connected to the euro. In addition, the European vector of
development of our country provides for joint development of renewable energy
with the EU countries and a gradual increase in the share of such energy
resources. The new leadership of the state and personally President Volodymyr
Zelensky repeatedly emphasized the priority of this area.
But after
the round-table meeting that took place on September 27 this year on the basis
of the Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services, we can not hope
for the best. In particular, the following changes were discussed at it:
–
reduction of the “green” tariff;
– the
establishment of new taxes (in local and state budgets) on existing stations;
– time
limits for Pre-PPA, providing for the use of the “green” tariff from 2020 and
its change for new stations from the same date.
It is
proposed to introduce an additional environmental tax on CO2 emissions as an
additional source for financing renewable energy.
Of course,
these are just proposals, and in the near future the working group of the
Committee will begin to develop specific legislative changes in this direction.
But even a discussion of such innovations makes the owners of the sun and wind
farms worried, as well as investors who have invested considerable funds in the
development of Ukrainian renewable energy. In addition to the risk of numerous
claims from them, it becomes quite clear that the corresponding changes in the
“green” legislation will hurt Ukraine’s investment attractiveness, as well as
slow down the development of alternative energy resources.
And only
oligarchs who will receive cheap electricity for the smooth operation of their works
and factories will benefit from such changes. Really – why should they spend
considerable money and time on the re-equipment of their production facilities
in accordance with the latest energy requirements, if they can continue to work
in normal mode, and save more?
It seems
that the numerous reproaches against the head of the aforementioned Committee
Andriy Gerus in his relations with the oligarchs and lobbying for they
interests have reason.
Discovery by University of Warwick scientists challenges accepted rule of organic solar cell design.
Could help to bring about low cost, flexible and stable organic solar cells for use on vehicles, curved surfaces and windows
Reducing surface area of electrodes in organic solar cells doesn’t reduce performance, provided the conductive parts are close enough together
Composites of insulating polymers and conducting nanoparticles could offer advantages over limited range of materials currently used
Solar cells that use mixtures of organic molecules to absorb sunlight and convert it to electricity, that can be applied to curved surfaces such as the body of a car, could be a step closer thanks to a discovery that challenges conventional thinking about one of the key components of these devices.
A basic organic solar cell consists of a thin film of organic semiconductors sandwiched between two electrodes which extract charges generated in the organic semiconductor layer to the external circuit. It has long been assumed that 100% of the surface of each electrode should be electrically conductive to maximize the efficiency of charge extraction.
Scientists at the University of Warwick have discovered that the electrodes in organic solar cells actually only need ~1% of their surface area to be electrically conductive to be fully effective, which opens the door to using a range of composite materials at the interface between the electrodes and the light harvesting organic semiconductor layers to improve device performance and reduce cost. The discovery, published yesterday (September 11, 2019), is reported in Advanced Functional Materials.
The academic lead, Dr Ross Hatton from the University’s Department of Chemistry, said: “It’s widely assumed that if you want to optimize the performance of organic solar cells you need to maximize the area of the interface between the electrodes and the organic semiconductors. We asked whether that was really true.”
The researchers developed a model electrode that they could systematically change the surface area of, and found that when as much as 99% of its surface was electrically insulating the electrode still performs as well as if 100% of the surface was conducting, provided the conducting regions aren’t too far apart.
High performance organic solar cells have additional transparent layers at the interfaces between the electrodes and the light harvesting organic semiconductor layer that are essential for optimizing the light distribution in the device and improving its stability, but must also be able to conduct charges to the electrodes. This is a tall order and not many materials meet all of these requirements.
Dr Dinesha Dabera, the post-doctoral researcher on this Leverhulme Trust funded project, explains:“This new finding means composites of insulators and conducting nano-particles such as carbon nanotubes, graphene fragments or metal nanoparticles, could have great potential for this purpose, offering enhanced device performance or lower cost.
“Organic solar cells are very close to being commercialized but they’re not quite there yet, so anything that allows you to further reduce cost whilst also improving performance is going to help enable that.”
Dr Hatton, who was interviewed by Serena Bashal of the UK Youth Climate Coalition at the British Science Festival this week, explains: “What we’ve done is to demonstrate a design rule for this type of solar cell, which opens up much greater possibilities for materials choice in the device and so could help to enable their realisation commercially.’’
Organic solar cells are potentially very environmentally friendly, because they contain no toxic elements and can be processed at low temperature using roll-to-roll deposition, so can have an extremely low carbon footprint and a short energy payback time.
Dr Hatton explains: “There is a fast growing need for solar cells that can be supported on flexible substrates that are lightweight and color-tuneable. Conventional silicon solar cells are fantastic for large scale electricity generation in solar farms and on the roofs of buildings, but they are poorly matched to the needs of electric vehicles and for integration into windows on buildings, which are no longer niche applications. Organic solar cells can sit on curved surfaces, and are very lightweight and low profile.
“This discovery may help enable these new types of flexible solar cells to become a commercial reality sooner because it will give the designers of this class of solar cells more choice in the materials they can use.”
If the idea of flying on battery-powered commercial jets makes you nervous, you can relax a little. Researchers have discovered a practical starting point for converting carbon dioxide into sustainable liquid fuels, including fuels for heavier modes of transportation that may prove very difficult to electrify, like airplanes, ships, and freight trains.
Carbon-neutral re-use of CO2 has emerged as an alternative to burying the greenhouse gas underground. In a new study published today in Nature Energy, researchers from Stanford University and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) show how electricity and an Earth-abundant catalyst can convert CO2 into energy-rich carbon monoxide (CO) better than conventional methods. The catalyst – cerium oxide – is much more resistant to breaking down. Stripping oxygen from CO2 to make CO gas is the first step in turning CO2 into nearly any liquid fuel and other products, like synthetic gas and plastics. The addition of hydrogen to CO can produce fuels like synthetic diesel and the equivalent of jet fuel. The team envisions using renewable power to make the CO and for subsequent conversions, which would result in carbon-neutral products.
“We showed we can use electricity to reduce CO2 into CO with 100 percent selectivity and without producing the undesired byproduct of solid carbon,” said William Chueh, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford, one of three senior authors of the paper.
Chueh, aware of DTU’s research in this area, invited Christopher Graves, associate professor in DTU’s Energy Conversion & Storage Department, and Theis Skafte, a DTU doctoral candidate at the time, to come to Stanford and work on the technology together.
“We had been working on high-temperature CO2 electrolysis for years, but the collaboration with Stanford was the key to this breakthrough,” said Skafte, lead author of the study, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at DTU. “We achieved something we couldn’t have separately – both fundamental understanding and practical demonstration of a more robust material.”
Barriers to conversion
One advantage sustainable liquid fuels could have over the electrification of transportation is that they could use the existing gasoline and diesel infrastructure, like engines, pipelines and gas stations. Additionally, the barriers to electrifying airplanes and ships – long-distance travel and the high weight of batteries – would not be problems for energy-dense, carbon-neutral fuels.
From left: Christopher Graves, Michal Bajdich and Michael Machala in front of the pulsed laser deposition machine that Machala used to fabricate the electrodes. Credit: Mark Golden
Although plants reduce CO2 to carbon-rich sugars naturally, an artificial electrochemical route to CO has yet to be widely commercialized. Among the problems: Devices use too much electricity, convert a low percentage of CO2 molecules, or produce pure carbon that destroys the device. Researchers in the new study first examined how different devices succeeded and failed in CO2 electrolysis.
With insights gained, the researchers built two cells for CO2 conversion testing: one with cerium oxide and the other with conventional nickel-based catalysts. The ceria electrode remained stable, while carbon deposits damaged the nickel electrode, significantly shortening the catalyst’s lifetime.
“This remarkable capability of ceria has major implications for the practical lifetime of CO2electrolyzer devices,” said DTU’s Graves, a senior author of the study and visiting scholar at Stanford at the time. “Replacing the current nickel electrode with our new ceria electrode in the next generation electrolyzer would improve device lifetime.”
Road to commercialization
Eliminating early cell death could significantly lower the cost of commercial CO production. The suppression of carbon buildup also allows the new type of device to convert more of the CO2 to CO, which is limited to well below 50 percent CO product concentration in today’s cells. This could also reduce production costs.
“The carbon-suppression mechanism on ceria is based on trapping the carbon in stable oxidized form. We were able to explain this behavior with computational models of CO2 reduction at elevated temperature, which was then confirmed with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of the cell in operation,” said Michal Bajdich, a senior author of the paper and an associate staff scientist at the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science & Catalysis, a partnership between the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford’s School of Engineering.
The high cost of capturing CO2 has been a barrier to sequestering it underground on a large scale, and that high cost could be a barrier to using CO2 to make more sustainable fuels and chemicals. However, the market value of those products combined with payments for avoiding the carbon emissions could help technologies that use CO2 overcome the cost hurdle more quickly.
The researchers hope that their initial work on revealing the mechanisms in CO2 electrolysis devices by spectroscopy and modeling will help others in tuning the surface properties of ceria and other oxides to further improve CO2 electrolysis.
Scientists find a new way to capture heat that otherwise would have been lost.
An international team of scientists has figured out how to capture heat and turn it into electricity.
The discovery, published last week in the journal Science Advances, could create more efficient energy generation from heat in things like car exhaust, interplanetary space probes, and industrial processes.
“Because of this discovery, we should be able to make more electrical energy out of heat than we do today,” said study co-author Joseph Heremans, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and Ohio Eminent Scholar in Nanotechnology at The Ohio State University. “It’s something that, until now, nobody thought was possible.”
The discovery is based on tiny particles called paramagnons—bits that are not quite magnets, but that carry some magnetic flux. This is important, because magnets, when heated, lose their magnetic force and become what is called paramagnetic. A flux of magnetism—what scientists call “spins”—creates a type of energy called magnon-drag thermoelectricity, something that, until this discovery, could not be used to collect energy at room temperature.
“The conventional wisdom was once that, if you have a paramagnet and you heat it up, nothing happens,” Heremans said. “And we found that that is not true. What we found is a new way of designing thermoelectric semiconductors—materials that convert heat to electricity. Conventional thermoelectrics that we’ve had over the last 20 years or so are too inefficient and give us too little energy, so they are not really in widespread use. This changes that understanding.”
Magnets are a crucial part of collecting energy from heat: When one side of a magnet is heated, the other side—the cold side—gets more magnetic, producing spin, which pushes the electrons in the magnet and creates electricity.
The paradox, though, is that when magnets get heated up, they lose most of their magnetic properties, turning them into paramagnets—“almost-but-not-quite magnets,” Heremans calls them. That means that, until this discovery, nobody thought of using paramagnets to harvest heat because scientists thought paramagnets weren’t capable of collecting energy.
What the research team found, though, is that the paramagnons push the electrons only for a billionth of a millionth of a second—long enough to make paramagnets viable energy-harvesters.
The research team—an international group of scientists from Ohio State, North Carolina State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (all are equal authors on this journal article)—started testing paramagnons to see if they could, under the right circumstances, produce the necessary spin.
What they found, Heremans said, is that paramagnons do, in fact, produce the kind of spin that pushes electrons.
And that, he said, could make it possible to collect energy.
On September 20, an action was held in the capital of Ukraine as part of the Global Climate strike, the participants of which expressed their position regarding environmental pollution and harmful emissions, which negatively affects the environmental situation and leads to irreversible climate changes. Indeed, this July was the hottest month, and the last 5 years exceeded the maximum temperature indicators for the entire history of observing the weather.
As part of the Climate strike, more than 2,000 activists walked with slogans around the center of Kyiv and handed a letter to the president’s office with basic requirements. Among them – the transition to renewable energy sources until 2050, a ban on the extraction of fossil fuels and use disposable plastic, the development of eco-oriented transport, the termination of subsidies for industrial livestock from the state budget.
On
this day similar actions were held in 160 countries, including Germany,
Australia and the USA. Activists hopes in this way to draw attention to the
problem on the eve of the UN summit on climate issues, which is scheduled for
September 23, 2019.
An inexpensive thermoelectric device harnesses the cold of space without active heat input, generating electricity that powers an LED at night, researchers report September 12 in the journal Joule.
“Remarkably, the device is able to generate electricity at night, when solar cells don’t work,” says lead author Aaswath Raman, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Beyond lighting, we believe this could be a broadly enabling approach to power generation suitable for remote locations, and anywhere where power generation at night is needed.”
While solar cells are an efficient source of renewable energy during the day, there is currently no similar renewable approach to generating power at night. Solar lights can be outfitted with batteries to store energy produced in daylight hours for night-time use, but the addition drives up costs.
The device developed by Raman and Stanford University scientists Wei Li and Shanhui Fan sidesteps the limitations of solar power by taking advantage of radiative cooling, in which a sky-facing surface passes its heat to the atmosphere as thermal radiation, losing some heat to space and reaching a cooler temperature than the surrounding air. This phenomenon explains how frost forms on grass during above-freezing nights, and the same principle can be used to generate electricity, harnessing temperature differences to produce renewable electricity at night, when lighting demand peaks.
This is a schematic of a thermoelectric generator that harnesses temperature differences to produce renewable electricity without active heat input. Credit: Aaswath Raman
Raman and colleagues tested their low-cost thermoelectric generator on a rooftop in Stanford, California, under a clear December sky. The device, which consists of a polystyrene enclosure covered in aluminized mylar to minimize thermal radiation and protected by an infrared-transparent wind cover, sat on a table one meter above roof level, drawing heat from the surrounding air and releasing it into the night sky through a simple black emitter. When the thermoelectric module was connected to a voltage boost convertor and a white LED, the researchers observed that it passively powered the light. They further measured its power output over six hours, finding that it generated as much as 25 milliwatts of energy per square meter.
Since the radiative cooler consists of a simple aluminum disk coated in paint, and all other components can be purchased off the shelf, Raman and the team believe the device can be easily scaled for practical use. The amount of electricity it generates per unit area remains relatively small, limiting its widespread applications for now, but the researchers predict it can be made twenty times more powerful with improved engineering — such as by suppressing heat gain in the radiative cooling component to increase heat-exchange efficiency — and operation in a hotter, drier climate.
“Our work highlights the many remaining opportunities for energy by taking advantage of the cold of outer space as a renewable energy resource,” says Raman. “We think this forms the basis of a complementary technology to solar. While the power output will always be substantially lower, it can operate at hours when solar cells cannot.”
Last studies in the field of pumped hydro, the use of liquid air energy and wind flows
promise the cheapness and affordability of such approaches. Supporters are
confident in the rapid development of technologies that allow obtaining
electricity from renewable sources, which are also environmentally friendly and
safe, for example the sun, wind and others.
Using water energy is considered traditional method
in this area. By reason of the difference in altitude, the movement of water
masses, special turbines convert it into electricity. A research team at ANU (Australian
National University) has discovered at least 530000 potential reservoirs that
can become as inexpensive, renewable energy sources worldwide.
Mr. Lu, member of the project team, noted that today
pumped hydro is the cheapest
technology for producing electricity from renewable sources on a large-scale,
because it plants account for 97% of this energy all over the world, and the
typical service life of the latter is fifty years.
Other hopeful method of volume energy storage is formed
on the basic rules of physics. Energy Vault offers using cranes to construct a
huge tower consisting of concrete blocks weighing 35 tons each. The essence of
the technique is that during a fall such blocks release the accumulated energy
spent on their rise, starting up the turbogenerators.
Finally, the 3rd case: Highview Power seeks to demonstrate that its liquid air energy storage systems can give low-price and extremely effective energy battery for 5-10 hours every day. Experts assure that such energy conservation resources in combination with its renewable sources are equal and can be substitute for thermal and nuclear, while ensuring more safety of delivery.
Reliable and inexpensivepumped hydro accumulation
In concordance with recent ANU studies, there are a huge number of inexpensive,
effective pumped hydro battery everywhere that can be coupled with solar or
wind energy construction to create electrical networks without harmful
emissions. Such conclusions are in opposition to normal opinion.
Leading researcher M.Stokes claims that they have managed to discover 100% of potential places for storing and producing pumped hydro around the world, but only a minor part of them will be necessary to support the global electricity system, with a fully renewable.
A snapshot of the world map with prospective short-term off-river pumped-hydro energy storage sites
According to scientists from ANU, these sites for pumped hydro do not have to be situated nearby rivers or other
bodies of water. The local terrain can be adapted to accommodate the lower and
upper water tanks, which will subsequently be connected with pipelines for
pumping water in the right direction and putting the units into motion to
generate electricity on request.
The pоwer оf the sun and wind, in turn, can be utilized for pumping water between
tanks, which will significantly reduce the cоst and increase the efficiency of the system. Scientists
believe that high-vоltage transmissiоn lines cоuld be built tо transfer electricity, thus creating netwоrks with no
emissiоns.
Formation renewable energy areas and no-emissions electrical networks
A.Blakers, a member оf the research grоup, said that there are a lоt of pоssibility for
creating renеwable еnergy zonеs around us, where there are suitable conditions for
the use of wind, sun and water. These include parts оf the USA, as
well as abоut 3000 оther zоnes throughout Australia.
He explained – the price оf transportation is distributed between wind, solar
and hydrо statiоns. Alsо, the reservоir guarantees uninterrupted оperation оf the mechanism arоund the clоck, what reduces
the price оf transfer оf energy and makes it mоre efficient.
The scientist nоted that envirоnmental, geоlоgical and anоther cоnditions will cоnduce tо exclusiоn of many of the prоpоsed facilities, but with sо many pоssible lоcations, less than 1% оf the them need tо be develоped tо suppоrt 100% of renewable energy sоurces. In addition, the cоst of transportatiоn and cоnstruction оf the infrastructure fоr mоst sites is insignificant, and with the increase in area, they cоmpletely lоse their significance.
Energy storage potential by UN geo region in units of Gigawatt-hours (GWh) per million people
A.Blakers affirms: the hydrо installations will be able tо prоvide maximum pоwer fоr 5-25 hоurs, depending оn the size оf the tanks. The principles оf fоrmation оf such structures are gооd studied and tested, and a pumped prоvides a very quick flоw оf energy. In additiоn, the amоunt оf water cоnsumed needed tо generate electricity in cоmbination with the sun and wind will be significantly less because no need to cооl energy sources with water. The link prоvides additional infоrmation abоut the analysis, as well as maps with the lоcations of pоtential places of hydrо storage: http://re100.eng.anu.edu.au/global/
The construction of the blocks – innovative energy storage
Energy Vault offers a non-standard system where the amount of accumulated
energy depends on the number and weight of blocks, as well as their altitude of
placement.
This method is very economical: the price of energy storage will be only a
few cents per kilowatt hour, which is about 7 times lower than that for other
systems.
But today it is still difficult for innovative systems to compete with
traditional approaches for long or large energy supplies. However, this system
can be combined with other renewable energy sources and completely switch to eco-friendly
methods.
Energy Vault won Fast Company’s 2019 World Changing Ideas Awards in the
Energy category.
Originality of liquid
air energy storage (LAES) technology
Highview Power offers to pay attention to liquid air energy storage systems.
This British company cooperate with TSK in this direction to create LAES projects
in some West African and Europe countries, the USA, the U.K.
CEO J.Cavada believes that the price of such energy is twice as beneficial
compared to similar systems. For example, lithium-ion battery systems has
expensive related costs and can be highly effective energy storage capacity no
more than 4 hours.
Mr. Cavada sure that LAES will development of use other renewable energy sources – sun and wind, because there is a need for reliable storage. LAES provides fifty MWh of energy storage capacity for eight hours a day, will work 10 or 20 years, be managed remotely and has inexpensive related costs.
LAES operation details
Increase in operating capacity from 0 to 100% occurs in less than ten
seconds, which was proved in Manchester. Highview can connect systems with
flywheels or lithium-ion battery systems to achieve a lightning fast response.
In addition, the technique and technology of compressing air into liquid
form are goog known and used in various industries, CEO notes. This simplifies
and accelerates the development and integration of systems, which in turn
reduces overall costs. Today, there are many institutions where they use liquid
air in the same temperature range (oxygen or nitrogen). Moreover, when cooling,
the air is purified, since carbon dioxide is removed, because its liquefaction
temperature is higher than that of oxygen.
This gas can be used and sold as a by-product for the
production of soda water and other similar drinks. The company is working with
a British brewery to do this as part of the potential project.
Highview predicts many ways to use its technology. In Italy the company is developing several
projects to make the energy of the sun or wind fully dispatchable (24 hours, 7
days a week, 365 days a year), which requires enough storage space.
The value of an energy storage system in the form of liquid air differs in countries with different levels of development. In less developed countries LAES technology can significantly support national and regional electrification initiatives and as contribute significantly to achieving national and international renewable energy and climate change goals.
Towards a switch to renewable energy
The energy storage systems in the form of liquid air
can increase the use of natural gas or coal-fired power stations, contributing
to their activities and the transition to energy with zero carbon emissions.
The technology can be synchronized, for example, with gas power stations. In
this case, natural gas will be used only in case of urgent need.
But this approach contradicts the mission and strategy of the company, because its main task is to accelerate the growth of renewable energy sources and completely replace nuclear and fossil fuels. A lot of oil and gas companies are aware of this, and Highview is working with them to achieve the goal.
Cavada announced the upcoming meeting between Highview
and TSK executives with Shell and Total to discuss a switch to renewable energy
and help them in this matter.
Gоvernment energy
authorities and utilities in various cоuntries have shown
great interest in LAES technology. For the purpоse of a feasibility
study, Highview develоped a 50 MW/400 MWh
installation in the USA connected to a wind farm, and also signed up an agreement
and expects tо be able tо annоunce the signing of a deal sооn.
By launching two small installations in the U.K.,
Highview is alsо wоrking оn a 50 MW/250 MWh system. This technology implies an increase a system’s
energy stоrage capacity frоm 8 to 10 hоurs.
