Assessment of European Pumped Hydropower Storage Potential (This is posted on behalf of the JRC – Joint Research Centre) Dear colleagues We have finished our modelling of the potential for pumped hydropower storage in 21 European countries (see list below). This potential is the result of adding up individual results from 3500 sites (topology A […]
Read MoreAustralian idea for ammonia transmission of wind energy
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/1384c714ccc80b76 takes you to mail with file attached… ——– Original Message ——- I am wondering if you all might be interested in a proposal I am pushing in Australia that might also be relevant to other places with renewable energy resources in remote areas such as in North Africa, the Middle East, desert areas in China […]
Read MoreAre large thermal stores and Combined Heat and Power District Heating (CHP) with District Heating (DH) pipes to deliver heat to buildings is more likely to be a better solution to de carbonising the building heating sector than relying on large-scale electricity storage of renewable or nuclear electricity (the “all electric solution”) delivered to buildings via cable?
One of the most intractable energy problems in Europe is how to deal with the heating load of buildings, (11 EJ/y), which is the largest user of primary energy and is presently met largely with gas. This heat load will not go away due to the expense of insulating the legacy buildings beyond quite modest […]
Read MoreThe value of electricity storage to the UK power system
Dave, I’ve got around to looking at the value of storage and have prepared a simple model to assess this for the GB system, copy attached (in Excel 2007 containing a couple of macos). I’ve taken some sample days of historic price profiles from the www.bmreports.com website – two for each month of […]
Read MoreGrid-Connected Intermittent Renewables Are The Last To Be Stored
( Note – this article will shortly be published in the Elsevier International Journal of Renewable Energy which owns all rights.) Abstract When hydro-electric power systems became wide-spread, associated developments for energy storage, using pumped water, soon followed. Many other methods of storage have since been considered. Today’s interest in other renewables, notably wind energy […]
Read MoreCarbon-free shipping – using renewables to create ammonia by electrolysis during peak periods to be used as shipping or aviation fuel
Carbon-free shipping. (Ed. – ammonia makes a very good aviation fuel) Ammonia (NH3) could be used as a carbon free fuel for shipping. It could be made from atmospheric nitrogen combined with renewable energy derived hydrogen. Ammonia’s hydrogen could react with oxygen to power engines, turbines or fuel cells, emitting N and H2O. Oxygen pre-separation […]
Read MoreEuropean hydro capacity compared to the demand for electricity
Hydro Capacity in the EU-15 and Norway 22 days the energy storage capacity of hydro across Western Europe, (the EU15 countries plus Norway and Iceland), expressed in terms of average daily electricity demand 177 TWh the storage capacity, put another way. That’s the same as 0.604 quads, 22MTCe, 15 MTOe, 152Pcal, 637PJ, or 465kWh per person across […]
Read MoreWhat square of land area of wind turbines would be needed in reasonable sites in the UK to in one year generate all UKs power demand?
Data
A 5 MW turbine rotor diameter is 126m ( from the Repower website http://www.repower.de/index.php?id=12&L=1 )
According to Martin Alder, a wind farm owner and developer:
Across wind turbine spacing = 3 x dia (Assume tower to tower)
Down wind turbine spacing = 5 x dia
According to Colin Palmer, of Wind Prospect, a leading wind farm developer, load factors of 30 – 35% onshore, and 40% offshore are readilly achievalbe.
So assume 33%.
Calculation
Take a 70 mile by 70 mile square. This equals 112 km by 112 km
So downwind, turbine spacing (tower to tower) will be 126 x 3 = 378m. Thus in 70 miles / 112 km we can accommodate (112 x 1000 / 378 ) +1 = 297.3 towers (allowing half blade length to protrude out of area at edges).
Similarly, cross wind, we need 5 x 126 = 630 m. Thus in 70 miles / 112 km we can accommodate (112 x 1000 /630) +1 = 178.8 towers (again allowing half blade length to protrude out of area at edges).
Thus a 70 mile by 70 mile square can accommodate 297.3 x 178.8 = 53,157 turbines..
At 5 MW each, these will generate at peak 265.7 GW.
Assuming reasonable sites and a 1/3 , 33% load factor, this will generate on average 79.73 GW.
Read MoreActive Power Article – Flywheel energy storage
Summary – this article offers compelling reasons for using a flywheel in combination with a diesel generator for UPS. Essentially batteries are the weakest point of any generator, and the flywheel eliminates the need for them, by storing enough energy to start the generator, and to provide no break power whilst the generator is starting. This article is written by and features Active Power who manufacture these systems.
As compared to other energy storage technologies (i.e., flow battery, compressed air, hydrogen, lithium ion battery, etc.), flywheel technology is a very mature, field proven technology. It’s worth noting Active Power was the first to commercialize a mechanical flywheel energy storage system and soon after patented the integration of UPS electronics with flywheel energy storage. Flywheel operation is very well understood and Active Power alone has more than 2,100 flywheels deployed in the field to date with more than 55 million hours of runtime. Flywheels present the most power dense energy storage technology when used as a bridging device between an outage and on to a generator.
Read MoreElectrical Energy Storage: applications, markets and technologies
The energy storage industry is assured of a successful future. There will be setbacks in these difficult times, of course, in a sector that has many vulnerable pre-commercial technology developers. However, storage has all the attributes of a cornerstone technology, enabling real progress in areas that are certain to be of huge significance: the effective use of […]
Read More