column-policy blindspot misses energy storage: gerard wynn - battery power storage

(
The author is a Reuters market analyst.
The views expressed are his own. )
London, April 4. Reuters)-
Neglected power storage technology is low in the future
If policymakers can find a way to reward the benefits of nuances, including avoiding soaring prices and reducing demand for backup power, the carbon grid will emerge.
The essence of storage is simple: turn the power off-peak demand.
Or, in terms of renewable energy, from sunny or windy days to not-clear days.
Energy storage has the potential to cut the power generation capacity needed by helping meet peak demand, but it is only at the cutting edge of government thinking.
This is slowly changing as the trickiness of energy supply choices becomes clear, whether for security reasons (nuclear), expense (
Carbon capture and storage)
Or carbon emissions (fossil fuels).
Traditionally, energy support rewards power generation technologies such as low power.
Renewable carbon and nuclear energy.
Energy storage involves more subtle benefits, including avoiding soaring electricity prices and increasing efficiency by building backup power plants.
Perhaps for this reason, so far it has not reached the goal of public policy.
At present, the vast majority of electricity is stored by pumping water and electricity, basically pumping water on the uphill, releasing the gate at the peak of demand.
This is a solution limited by topography and water resources;
The problem of wider application is the novelty or cost of technology including battery power supply, compressed or frozen air and electrolysis (
Use electricity to dissolve water into hydrogen and oxygen).
Another problem is policy support, and the root of current policy support is to help mature energy generation technologies, including wind energy and solar energy.
Energy storage has to compete for one-
Energy technology Grant: The Berlin government announced a 3 after Germany decided to withdraw from nuclear power. 5 billion euros ($4. 67 billion)
-Energy Research Programme, 20112014.
About 0. 2 billion euros were reserved for storage research.
The doors of Britain are open all the time-
With the support of the power market reform plan, accepting what it calls a "capacity mechanism", the company will strive to provide a certain amount of power generation capacity in the coming year.
In order to ensure the reserve deposit, some of these capabilities will inevitably be idle;
The policy drivers of the reform are the imminent closure of some of the country's fifth aging power plants, coupled with increasing reliance on intermittent wind power.
The idea, for example, is to enable the country to cope with the surge in electricity demand on a windless day.
A "technology update" released in last December foresee the potential role of storage. But the 56-
The page document is not further stated.
For example, it does not recommend how energy storage can compete with cheaper natural gas
Although thermal power plants may make more efficient use of assets within six or seven years, this is the full time to prepare for the construction of a natural gas plant. Start-
The Up company is working on energy storage, but it needs to ensure the future development of the market.
An example of the electrolysis method is the German start-
Darenertrag, together with its partner Vattenfall, is always on the German Federal Railway.
It is operating one of the first plants to generate wind and turn it into hydrogen.
Hydrogen can be stored and then burned to generate power, heat, or fuel vehicles, or mixed in natural gas pipelines.
The trouble is that its price is two to four times the price of natural gas imported from Germany.
Another new method is to cool the air into liquid
Based on high-Vision power storage, the liquid is allowed to passively inflate and drive the turbine and generate electricity as needed.
Another way is to power the battery for power grid storage.
A scattered family
In theory, a central energy supplier can use emerging smart grid technologies to collect batteries as needed.
Lithium-ion battery storage may be affected by increasing interest in the electric vehicle market.
Although these technologies are still in the development stage, they need a route to the market.
The style capacity mechanism provides a front line.
The challenge will be to value these benefits and recognize them in the technology commercialize project, which establishes maturity in a way that is equally successful in achieving renewable energy. ($1 = 0. 7497 euros)(
Report of China;
Alison birkie, editor)