All About Solar | Green Energy News

September 25, 2005 – Vol.10 No.27

All ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

For renewable energy to be a reliable and viable replacement for conventional energy, better energy storage devices need to be developed. One technology that seems to be moving forward is the VRB Energy Storage System (ESS) from VRB Power Systems of Vancouver, Canada.

The ESS is a redox flow battery that stores energy in a working fluid, its electrolyte. The electrolyte contains dissolved metals, in this case vanadium. The metals in solution can be allowed to oxidize and release electrical energy or can be chemically reduced to store energy. (Thus the term redox - reduction/ oxidation.

The company has recently sold two ESS systems to opposite ends of the earth for research and demonstration projects.

A 10-kilowatt per hour system has been sold to the Phil Little Design Foundation of Queensland, Australia to be incorporated into an all-solar modular kit home the organization is developing. The home is being developed with help from the Queensland University of Technology, and others, as a grid-free, cost-effective housing solution.

In Germany, Solon AG will use a VRB-ESS to evaluate how well it would incorporate with Solon’s Mover tracking device. Mover is a packaged, mass-produced solar tracking system for large scale solar power plants. Not unlike a modular homes, Movers were devised to be prefabricated and deployed quickly. Movers are set on pedestals to minimize footprints and allow for productive use of the land beneath, such as farming or grazing.

VRB-ESS incorporated into the Mover would make each unit a 24/7 energy provider. Visit VRB Power at http://www.vrbpower.com/, Solon Mover at http://www.solonmover.com/ .