Evaluating energy storage technologies for wind power integration

In this paper we perform a cost analysis of different types of energy storage technologies. We evaluate eleven storage technologies, including lead-acid, sodium–sulfur, nickel–cadmium, and lithium-ion batteries, superconducting magnetic energy storage, electrochemical capacitors, flywheels, flow batteries, pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage systems. We perform economic analysis for key applications associated with a wind farm integrated into the electric grid, including load shifting, frequency support, and power quality. We identify the key characteristics that affect the economic viability for these technologies, perform sensitivity analyses based on key performance criteria and find improvement areas that could make them more competitive in the near future.     

New technology and possible advances in energy storage

Energy storage technologies may be electrical or thermal. Electrical energy stores have an electrical input and output to connect them to the system of which they form part, while thermal stores have a thermal input and output. The principal electrical energy storage technologies described are electrochemical systems (batteries and flow cells), kinetic energy storage (flywheels) and potential energy storage, in the form of pumped hydro and compressed air. Complementary thermal storage technologies include those based on the sensible and latent heat capacity of materials, which include bulk and smaller-capacity hot and cold water storage systems, ice storage, phase change materials and specific bespoke thermal storage media.     

储能与液流电池技术

大规模高效储能技术是解决可再生能源发电不连续、不稳定、不可控特性的重要途径,也是构建坚强智能电网的核心技术。本文对各种储能技术进行了综合分析,并对适用于大规模储能的抽水储能、压缩空气储能、钠硫电池、锂离子电池、铅酸电池和液流电池的技术特点、优劣势、发展前景进行了深入阐述;最后,对储能技术的发展思路进行了探讨,认为坚持技术开发与应用示范并重,进一步降低储能设备成本,提高其可靠性和稳定性并辅以一定的鼓励政策,是推进储能技术的产业化和实用化的重要途径。     

可再生能源系统的能源储存

介绍了电能储存在三种商业模式和各种储能技术包括水力蓄能，压缩空气蓄能，超导磁力储能，流体电池组，蓄电池，飞轮蓄能，储热，在此基础上，对非电网可再生能源储能系统特别是风力发电和储能方案进行了详细的分析，认为这是非常适合偏远地区的新技术。     

Large scale integration of wind power: moderating thermal power plant cycling

Power plant cycling in thermal plants typically implies high costs and emissions. It is, therefore, important to find ways to reduce the influence of variations in wind power generation on these plants without forsaking large amounts of wind power. Using a unit commitment model, this work investigates the possibility to reduce variations by means of a moderator, such as a storage unit or import/export capacity. The relation between the reduction in CO₂‐emissions and the power rating of the moderator is investigated, as well as the benefit of a moderator which handles weekly variations compared with a moderator which has to be balanced on a daily basis. It is found that a daily balanced moderator yields a decrease in emissions of about 2% at 20% wind power grid penetration. The reduction in emissions is mainly due to an avoidance of start‐up and part load emissions and a moderator of modest power rating is sufficient to achieve most of this decrease. In the case of a weekly balanced moderator, emissions are reduced as the moderator power rating increases. At 40% wind power grid penetration, a weekly balanced moderator reduces emissions with up to 11%. The major part of this reduction is due to the avoidance of wind power curtailment. The simulated benefit (CO₂‐emissions and costs) from adding a general moderator is compared with emissions from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies and cost data of five available moderator technologies; transmission capacity, pumped hydro power, compressed air energy storage, flow batteries and sodium sulphur batteries. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Current application situation and development prospect of physical energy storage technologies

作为可再生能源并网的关键技术,可再生能源的高速发展也带动了储能产业的发展和成熟。物理储能技术,发展历史长,技术较为成熟,部分已实现商业化运作;以抽水蓄能为代表,是电网调峰的主力,也在储能市场容量中占据着绝对份额。但无论是传统抽水蓄能,还是压缩空气储能都对环境、地理地质条件有较高的要求,极大地制约了这些技术的普遍推广和应用。因此物理储能也经历着应用模式的变革、传统技术向新兴技术转化的过程。虽然抽水蓄能、压缩空气储能和飞轮储能三种物理储能技术在原理、应用领域、安装容量以及未来发展趋势上各不相同, 但作为战略新兴技术,都需要技术的突破、政策和资金的支持以及更多的市场应用机会。     

耦合抽水蓄能的压缩空气储能电站概念研究

[目的]储能是发展新能源、实现碳达峰碳中和目标的基础条件,其中抽水蓄能是最主要的储能方式,但是抽水蓄能依赖地理条件,需要占用大量自然资源,优良的厂址资源十分有限。为了缓解抽水蓄能厂址资源需求与自然资源稀缺的矛盾,提出了一种耦合抽水蓄能的压缩空气储能系统,并从研究思路、概念方案和工程可行性进行分析,从而为抽水蓄能产业发展提供创新解决方案。[方法]围绕提高能量密度,以减小水库容量、降低水库高度差为突破点,运用压缩空气排水的方法,将水泵水轮机替换为压缩机和膨胀机,下库改为封闭结构的承压容器。储能时,压缩机将空气压缩至高压充入下库,并推挤下库内的水至上库。释能时,水从上库返回下库,下库内的压缩空气被推挤出,并经膨胀机释放。这可使相同条件下抽水蓄能的能量转换量提高数倍。为了论证耦合抽水蓄能的压缩空气储能电站的储能效果,设置上、下库高度差300 m,按照低性能和高性能两套设备参数,对40 MW/200 MWh的概念方案进行热力学分析和储能效率计算。[结果]结果表明:在低性能参数条件下,储能效率65.68%,在高性能参数条件下,储能效率70.81%;能量密度1.67 kWh/m³     

A review of marine renewable energy storage

Marine renewable energies are promising enablers of a cleaner energy future. Some technologies, like wind, are maturing and have already achieved commercial success. Similar to their terrestrial counterparts, marine renewable energy systems require energy storage capabilities to achieve the flexibility of the 21st century grid demand. The unique difficulties imposed by a harsh marine environment challenge the unencumbered rise of marine renewable energy generation and storage systems. In this study, the fundamentals of marine renewable energy generation technologies are briefed. A comprehensive review and comparison of state‐of‐the‐art novel marine renewable energy storage technologies, including pumped hydro storage (PHS), compressed air energy storage (CAES), battery energy storage (BES), hydrogen energy storage (HES), gravity energy storage (GES), and buoyancy energy storage (ByES), are conducted. The pros and cons, and potential applications, of various marine renewable energy storage technologies are also compiled. Finally, several future trends of marine renewable energy storage technologies are connoted.     

Performance of a small‐scale compressed air storage (CAS)

The use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar, has significantly increased in the last decade. However, these renewable technologies have the limitation of being intermittent; thus, storing energy in the form of compressed air is a promising option. In compressed air energy storage (CAES), the electrical energy from the power network is transformed into a high‐pressure storage system through a compressor. Then, when the demand for electricity is high, the stored high‐pressure air is used to drive a turbine to generate electricity. The advantages of CAES are its high energy density and quality, and for being environmentally friendly process. In the existing facilities of University of Auckland, New Zealand, air cavern is not available; thus, a high‐pressure tank is used to store the compressed air, which could provide an excellent opportunity for small size applications. There is a limited literature available on the temperature and pressure profiles in a typical high‐pressure tank during charging and discharging processes. Therefore, this research investigates how temperature and pressure inside a high‐pressure tank change during charging and discharging processes. It will provide a better understanding for heat transfer in such system. Furthermore, it will provide the necessary information needed for the designing of an efficient small‐scale CAES. In this work, air is compressed to a maximum pressure of 200 bar and stored into a 2 L tank, which is fully fitted with a pressure transducer and a thermocouple suitable for high‐pressure measurements. The charging and discharging process is theoretically modeled, and the results are compared with the experimental measurements, showing a good agreement. The heat balance on the system is used to validate the steady‐state condition, while dynamic analysis is used to predict the transient change of compressed air and tank wall temperatures. The theoretical modeling is undertaken by solving the differential equations describing the transient change in temperature of both air and tank wall. The results of this study show that air temperature rises from 24°C to 60°C at 100 bar and from approximately 17°C to over 60°C at 200 bar. During discharging process, air temperature drops from ambient to 5°C at starting pressure of 100 bar and to ?20°C at starting pressure of 200 bar.     

Commercial and research battery technologies for electrical energy storage applications

Developing green energy solutions has become crucial to society. However, to develop a clean and renewable energy system, significant developments must be made, not only in energy conversion technologies (such as solar panels and wind turbines) but also regarding the feasibility and capabilities of stationary electrical energy storage (EES) systems. Many types of EES systems have been considered such as pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS), compressed air energy storage (CAES), flywheels, and electrochemical storage. Among them, electrochemical storage such as battery has the advantage of being more efficient compared to other candidates, because it is more suitable in terms of the scalability, efficiency, lifetime, discharge time, and weight and/or mobility of the system. Currently, rechargeable lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are the most successful portable electricity storage devices, but their use is limited to small electronic equipment. Using LIBs to store large amounts of electrical energy in stationary applications is limited, not only by performance but also by cost. Thus, a viable battery technology that can store large amounts of electrical energy in stationary applications is needed. In this review, well-developed and recent progress on the chemistry and design of batteries, as well as their effects on the electrochemical performance, is summarized and compared. In addition, the challenges that are yet to be solved and the possibilities for further improvements are explored.     

Performance analysis of various hybrid renewable energy systems using battery,hydrogen, and pumped hydro‐based storage units

The aim of this research is to analyze the techno‐economic performance of hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) using batteries, pumped hydro‐based, and hydrogen‐based storage units at Sharurah, Saudi Arabia. The simulations and optimization process are carried out for nine HRES scenarios to determine the optimum sizes of components for each scenario. The optimal sizing of components for each HRES scenario is determined based on the net present cost (NPC) optimization criterion. All of the nine optimized HRES scenarios are then evaluated based on NPC, levelized cost of energy, payback period, CO₂ emissions, excess electricity, and renewable energy fraction. The simulation results show that the photovoltaic (PV)‐diesel‐battery scenario is economically the most viable system with the NPC of US$2.70 million and levelized cost of energy of US$0.178/kWh. Conversely, PV‐diesel‐fuel cell system is proved to be economically the least feasible system. Moreover, the wind‐diesel‐fuel cell is the most economical scenario in the hydrogen‐based storage category. PV‐wind‐diesel‐pumped hydro scenario has the highest renewable energy fraction of 89.8%. PV‐wind‐diesel‐pumped hydro scenario is the most environment‐friendly system, with an 89% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared with the base‐case diesel only scenario. Overall, the systems with battery and pumped hydro storage options have shown better techno‐economic performance compared with the systems with hydrogen‐based storage.     

A review of electrical energy storage technologies for renewable power generation and smart grids

储能技术是突破可再生能源大规模开发利用瓶颈的关键技术,是智能电网的必要组成部分.在储能市场商业化雏形阶段,系统性的比较分析各类储能技术的性能特点,为未来市场发展提供筛选技术路线的框架基础至关重要.本文阐述了储能技术在可再生能源发电和智能电网中的作用,对物理储能(抽水蓄能,压缩空气储能,飞轮储能),电化学储能(二次电池,液流电池),其它化学储能(氢能,合成天然气)等储能技术进行了系统的比较与分析,最后提出储能技术的发展趋势.     

Harnessing electricity storage for systems with intermittent sources of power: Policy and R&D needs

A central challenge for grid operators is matching electricity supply to demand, especially when the electricity supply is composed in part of intermittent resources. Several system options could help balance electricity supply and demand given different mixes of intermittent, baseload and load-following generation capacity; of these, electricity storage is especially interesting. If electricity storage could be deployed widely, grids of any size could sustain a wide range of profiles of intermittent and baseload power. Currently, most installed electricity storage worldwide is pumped hydro. Flywheels, compressed air and batteries represent interesting technologies that could provide grid-scale storage, especially if technology costs come down. A significant amount of storage R&D worldwide is appropriately focused on lowering these costs, but more is needed. Ultimately, storage will only achieve high levels of penetration if it can compete for service provision in electricity markets, and policy adjustments are needed in many countries to ensure this is the case.     

Operating characteristics of constant-pressure compressed air energy storage (CAES) system combined with pumped hydro storage based on energy and exergy analysis

Energy storage systems are becoming more important for load leveling, especially because of the widespread use of intermittent renewable energy. Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is a very promising method for energy storage because CAES relies on existing technologies, is less expensive, and easier to site and permit, as compared to pumped hydro storage. But, in the case of CAES employing hard rock caverns or man-made air vessels, although the smallest possible cavern volume is desirable in order to minimize the construction cost and optimize utilization of the given space, the operating pressure range in the cavern must be limited in order to reduce the deterioration in efficiency of the CAES system at off-design conditions. In this paper, a new constant-pressure CAES system combined with pumped hydro storage was studied to address the current problem associated with the conventional CAES systems. An energy and exergy analysis of the novel CAES system was performed in order to understand the operation characteristics of the system according to several different compression and expansion processes; we then examined the effects of the height of the storage cavern and heat transfer between two media (air, water) and the cavern on the performance of the novel CAES system.     

储能在能源安全中的作用

世界各国在积极发展可再生能源,而很大部分可再生能源用于发电.因此“能源安全”的范畴与重心将从20世纪的以石油安全为主逐步转向21世纪的以电力安全为主.确保安全、高质量供电,同时维持电力供需平衡是电力系统面临的持续挑战.发展新能源电力为常规电力机组的变负荷能力提出新的挑战:要求电力机组具备更快的变负荷调节能力;电力机组变负荷目标的不确定性增大;电力机组负荷调节范围更大.在电力系统中采用集成储能模块是解决电力系统变负荷和新能源电力接人产生问题的有效措施.储能总的作用是实现新能源电力上网、保持电网高效安全运行和电力供需平衡.储能系统的具体功能有三种:提高电能质量、提供桥接电能、能量管理.电力储能技术有抽水蓄能技术、压缩空气储能技术、超导储能技术、超级电容器储能技术、电化学储能技术、复合储能技术.对我国发展储能产业提出以下建议:从宏观战略层面制定储能发展规划;出台利于储能技术产业化的激励政策与机制;发布储能相关技术标准和管理规范,建立储能装置回收管理机制;加强储能技术研发与示范;建立储能产业链,降低成本;探索优化商业运营模式,加快储能技术的市场化步伐.     

Techno-economic analysis of compressed air energy storage power plant

压缩空气储能系统被认为是最具发展前景的大规模电力储能技术之一,具有广阔发展前景。本文建立了压缩空气储能系统的技术经济性计算模型,并针对蓄热式压缩空气储能系统应用于工业用户的情景,在有无补贴的两种计算条件下,进行了技术经济性分析。研究结果表明,在无补贴条件下,系统内部收益率为16.3%,投资回收期为9.2年;计算补贴时,系统内部收益率为23.8%,投资回收期为6.2年。同时本文还对该系统进行了盈亏平衡、敏感性等不确定性分析,找出影响系统经济性的敏感因素;并得出政策扶持对提高压缩空气储能电站的财务收益水平和抗风险能力具有重要的作用。本文的研究可以为压缩空气储能系统的研究和工程应用提供理论参考和工程指导。     

How the hydrogen production from RES could change energy and fuel markets: A review of recent literature

The goal that the international community has set itself is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the short/medium-term, especially in Europe that committed itself to reducing GHG emissions to 80–95% below 1990 levels by 2050. Renewable energies play a fundamental role in achieving this objective. In this context, the policies of the main industrialized countries of the world are being oriented towards increasing the shares of electricity produced from renewable energy sources (RES).In recent years, the production of renewable energy has increased considerably, but given the availability of these sources, there is a mismatch between production and demand. This raises some issues as balancing the electricity grid and, in particular, the use of surplus energy, as well as the need to strengthen the electricity network.Among the various new solutions that are being evaluated, there are: the accumulation in batteries, the use of compressed air energy storage (CAES) and the production of hydrogen that appears to be the most suitable to associate with the water storage (pumped hydro). Concerning hydrogen, a recent study highlights that the efficiencies of hydrogen storage technologies are lower compared to advanced lead acid batteries on a DC-to-DC basis, but “in contrast […] the cost of hydrogen storage is competitive with batteries and could be competitive with CAES and pumped hydro in locations that are not favourable for these technologies” (Moliner et al., 2016) [1].This shows that, once the optimal efficiency rate is reached, the technologies concerning the production of hydrogen from renewable sources will be a viable and competitive solution. But, what will be the impact on the energy and fuel markets? The production of hydrogen through electrolysis will certainly have an important economic impact, especially in the transport sector, leading to the creation of a new market and a new supply chain that will change the physiognomy of the entire energy market.     

Advances in thermal energy storage development at the German Aerospace Center(DLR)

Thermal energy storage(TES)is a key technology for renewable energy utilization and the improvement of the energy efficiency of heat processes.Sectors include industrial process heat and conventional and renewable power generation.TES systems correct the mismatch between supply and demand of thermal energy.In the medium to high temperature range(100~1000℃),only limited storage technology is commercially available and a strong effort is needed to develop a range of storage technologies which are efficient and economical for the very specific requirements of the different application sectors.At the DLR's Institute of Technical Thermodynamics,the complete spectrum of high temperature storage technologies,from various types of sensible over latent heat to thermochemical heat storages are being developed.Different concepts are proposed depending on the heat transfer fluid(synthetic oil,water/steam,molten salt,air)and the required temperature range.The aim is the development of cost effective,efficient and reliable thermal storage systems.Research focuses on characterization of storage materials,enhancement of internal heat transfer,design of innovative storage concepts and modelling of storage components and systems.Demonstration of the storage technology takes place from laboratory scale to field testing(5 kW^1 MW).The paper gives an overview on DLR's current developments.     

Managing peak loads in energy grids: Comparative economic analysis

One of the key issues in modern energy technology is managing the imbalance between the generated power and the load, particularly during times of peak demand. The increasing use of renewable energy sources makes this problem even more acute. Various existing technologies, including stationary battery energy storage systems (BESS), can be employed to provide additional power during peak demand times. In the future, integration of on-board batteries of the growing fleet of electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) into the grid can provide power during peak demand hours (vehicle-to-grid, or V2G technology).This work provides cost estimates of managing peak energy demands using traditional technologies, such as maneuverable power plants, conventional hydroelectric, pumped storage plants and peaker generators, as well as BESS and V2G technologies. The derived estimates provide both per kWh and kW year of energy supplied to the grid. The analysis demonstrates that the use of battery storage is economically justified for short peak demand periods of <1 h. For longer durations, the most suitable technology remains the use of maneuverable steam gas power plants, gas turbine,reciprocating gas engine peaker generators, conventional hydroelectric, pumped storage plants.     

Development of the all‐vanadium redox flow battery for energy storage: a review of technological,financial and policy aspects

The commercial development and current economic incentives associated with energy storage using redox flow batteries (RFBs) are summarised. The analysis is focused on the all‐vanadium system, which is the most studied and widely commercialised RFB. The recent expiry of key patents relating to the electrochemistry of this battery has contributed to significant levels of commercialisation in, for example, Austria, China and Thailand, as well as pilot‐scale developments in many countries. The potential benefits of increasing battery‐based energy storage for electricity grid load levelling and MW‐scale wind/solar photovoltaic‐based power generation are now being realised at an increasing level. Commercial systems are being applied to distributed systems utilising kW‐scale renewable energy flows. Factors limiting the uptake of all‐vanadium (and other) redox flow batteries include a comparatively high overall internal costs of $217 kW^?1 h^?1 and the high cost of stored electricity of ≈ The commercial development and current economic incentives associated with energy storage using redox flow batteries (RFBs) are summarised. The analysis is focused on the all‐vanadium system, which is the most studied and widely commercialised RFB. The recent expiry of key patents relating to the electrochemistry of this battery has contributed to significant levels of commercialisation in, for example, Austria, China and Thailand, as well as pilot‐scale developments in many countries. The potential benefits of increasing battery‐based energy storage for electricity grid load levelling and MW‐scale wind/solar photovoltaic‐based power generation are now being realised at an increasing level. Commercial systems are being applied to distributed systems utilising kW‐scale renewable energy flows. Factors limiting the uptake of all‐vanadium (and other) redox flow batteries include a comparatively high overall internal costs of $217 kW^?1 h^?1 and the high cost of stored electricity of ≈ $0.10 kW^?1 h^?1. There is also a low‐level utility scale acceptance of energy storage solutions and a general lack of battery‐specific policy‐led incentives, even though the environmental impact of RFBs coupled to renewable energy sources is favourable, especially in comparison to natural gas‐ and diesel‐fuelled spinning reserves. Together with the technological and policy aspects associated with flow batteries, recent attempts to model redox flow batteries are considered. The issues that have been addressed using modelling together with the current and future requirements of modelling are outlined. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.