upgrading the electric grid with flywheels and air - battery energy storage

Modern power grid has been helped by some recognized old power grid
Old-fashioned technology.
Wind turbines and compressed air don't sound as sexy as wind turbines and solar cells, but without the former, the latter may not be mainstream.
"The growth of renewable energy poses a problem," said Imre Gyuk, energy storage research project manager, the US Department of Energy (DOE (DOE).
"The previous load was [
Demand for power grid
This is unpredictable and a generation will try to follow it.
"With the surge in wind and solar power, supply has also become unpredictable. Electric High-
At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, Gyuk said the power grid operator's wire bill "is now a balancing act"C. (
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"Because the wind is only generated when the wind blows, and solar energy is collected on cloudy days, when not used, technologies that can store extra energy and eliminate it when needed are becoming more and more important.
"Storage is ideal for this balancing behavior," said Gyuk . ".
Power operators are using giant batteries to store electricity online.
But it may be expensive. (
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So scientists are re-examining old technologies that use the basic principles of physics and the laws of motion to keep energy until it needs energy.
One end of the storage spectrum is a technology like a huge battery: usually storing a lot of energy at night and releasing it back to the grid when the demand is large during the day.
On the other hand, frequency regulation techniques can help cope with the smaller ups and downs of the day.
If hundreds of households turn on the air conditioner at the same time, demand for electricity will rise immediately.
Gene Hunt in tynsboro, Massachusetts
Fossil-fuel generators typically offer frequency regulation services, but they can't do that quickly, notes Beacon Power.
It will take about five minutes for a large coal-fired power plant to respond to the requirements of the grid operators, but this is timeless in the power sector.
The signal is transmitted to the power plant every four to six seconds.
"It's like driving a cruise ship," he said . "
"When you turn right, there may be seven signals to turn left.
"His company is building a more flexible frequency regulator based on flywheel technology in Stephen town, New York.
The flywheel is a wheel or cylinder that is combined with the motor.
The motor rotates the wheel from the grid with excess power.
The process is reversed when power is needed, and the rotation of the wheel runs the motor, converting kinetic energy back to power.
The Beacon power Beacon s system is designed to use 200 freewheels connected together to store excess energy from the grid and distribute it when needed.
The flywheel can respond to signals from the grid in four seconds.
According to a paper by the Department of Energy, Gyuk said that the use of "fast storage" technologies such as Beacon's flywheel can reduce carbon production by 70%.
Just this week, Beacon announced that it has reached a new milestone in the construction of the Stephentown plant: it now has half the capacity, that is, 10 MW.
Hunt said the other 10 MW will be online in the second quarter of this year. Into Not-So-
The thin AirBeacon's flywheel facility can allocate up to 15 minutes of power, but if the power plant wants to store energy for a longer period of time, it can be achieved by pumping water on the uphill.
When energy is needed later, water flows down to power the turbine that produces energy. This so-called "pumped-
"Storage of water and electricity" is currently one of the most common forms of power storage used on the electricity network.
But Doe is working on cheaper systems that rely on compressed air rather than water.
A compressed air energy storage (CAES)
Facilities will use cheap, non-
When the demand is low, pump the air into the underground cave or the peak power stored in the reservoir.
Then, when the demand increases, the system will send out Air later, which may be to use a gas turbine to heat the air when it leaves the cave.
The electricity that pumps the air first is generated by the wind, so "you're using off-
"Peak wind, otherwise it could" overflow ", said Gyuk ".
Such facilities require good geological conditions, but "every state in the federation has the potential to store compressed air," Gyuk said.
"There are only two compressed air energy storage projects on the global electricity network: one in huntsdorf, Germany, which has been running for more than 30 years, and the other in Mackintosh, Alabama, which started in 1991.
But with funding from the Department of Energy, California and New York are working on the other two.
"We are doubling the capacity of the world," Gyuk said . ".
The third project in Iowa, which is currently seeking funding, has been completed.
In a cave in Norton, Ohio, it is theoretically possible to store up to 2,700 MW of electricity.
Gyuk admits that most of these technologies are in the early stages, simply because storage has not become a concern until recently.
"The utilities department didn't know anything about storage 10 years ago.
It exploded two years ago.
Everyone is interested now.
The purpose of my program. .
Is to make storage everywhere on the grid. "(
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