With populations growing rapidly and resources running low, the demand for renewable energy will only get larger in the years to come. While renewable energy cuts greenhouse gas emissions, officials are still left with the problem of how to balance supply and demand and what storage procedures should be taken into action. New reports delve into the idea of electricity grids and storage in isolated areas. As countries are forced to reduce CO2 emissions, more regions aim to ditch conventional coal burning and start investing in renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power.
Little has been discussed about renewable energy storage in the past. Currently there is only a storage capacity of 2.6% of the total production of renewable energy. Energy companies are beginning to brainstorm for ideas about how to store excess energy when demand is low and use it when demand is high.
Four options have been discussed amongst officials:
- Low lower application - suited to isolated areas, essentially to feed transducers and energy terminals.
- Medium power application - for isolated areas where individual electricity or town supplies are needed.
- Network connection application - to provide peak levelling (e.g. stored energy is released during peak demand, thereby reducing the total capacity required in the system).
- Power quality control application - short term use of stored energy to ensure quality of power supply.
The technologies at hand still need improvements. Lithium-ion batteries can be a competent use of storage but the production of the batteries needs to be adjusted in order to make this a cost effective reality. Lead based batteries have a shorter life span and questions about disposal will be brought up. There are still a lot of details for energy companies to work out.
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Posted under Articles, Environmental News
This post was written by Christine Pinella on June 8, 2008