'Round-the-Clock Renewables | Green Energy News

December 12, 2009 – Vol.14 No.38

'ROUND-THE-CLOCK RENEWABLES.
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

With new oil development contracts awarded, Iraq’s oil production could reach 12 million barrels per day in six years, according to the country’s oil minister. Iraq would then rival its southern neighbor, Saudi Arabia, as the global leader in daily crude output.

The global impact of the additional supply could be astounding or nothing. If global demand for oil increases only slightly and supply from other nations stays much the same as now, oil prices could drop dramatically as the world enters another cheap oil bubble like that in the 1990’s. Low prices at the pump would boost global economies. The U.S. would flourish in Obama’s second term or Palin’s first.

Alternatively, global demand for oil could skyrocket in the next few years, with China and India demanding ever more on a daily basis, at the same time as output from producers, such as Iran and Venezuela, continues to fall. If this second scenario comes true, Iraq’s new oil riches will result in only a small bump in the history of oil production. Iraq will just make up for what others no longer provide.

The story line will probably end up somewhere in between.

Iraq’s oil poses yet another hurdle for nations hoping to put a lid on global warming. Oil companies will lobby hard to keep their wealth alive, where governments, organizations and individuals will be working hard to keep people from dying.

Yet even in the face of such powerful interests, concerned parties can continue in force to do as they have been for years: work to get global warming emissions from power plants under control and eliminated. To do that, the world will have to sequester carbon, go nuclear, be far more energy efficient and/or develop renewables that are competitive with coal in price as well as utilization. Renewables will need to be available 24/7. Now, only hydroelectric, biomass, and methane gas operations are round-the-clock providers of green electricity. Wind and solar – the darlings of the clean electricity movement – are only available for part of the day, of course.

In the U.S., the proposed Tres Amigas superconducting electricity hub planned for New Mexico, will help channel renewable power from where it’s not being put to work to places where it’s needed nationwide. Tres Amigas (Three Friends, named for the three major national power grids) is in the paperwork stage at this point.

The another option is to turn intermittent renewables – often used for peaking power capacity – into baseload power. Turning peak power into baseload power means adding energy storage capacity. Coal is stored energy. Wind, solar, ocean, tidal current as well as off-peak unsold energy from all sources need to have the ability to be stored and released as needed.

The Obama Administration is spot-on including energy storage as part of its smart grid energy component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), aka the stimulus package.

Soon after American Electric Power (AEP) won $75 million in economic stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for its Ohio’s gridSMART Demonstration Project, the utility awarded S&C Electric Company of Chicago a contract to provide a first of its kind Community Energy Storage System, sodium-sulfur battery-based system. Aside from being able to store any renewable power generated within certain AEP circuits, the system will be able to provide back-up power during outages as well as support plug-in electric car deployment. The system could also eventually support “second life” possibilities for the reuse of batteries that can no longer function as electric vehicle batteries, but can still function well as stationary energy storage.

Another winner in Department of Energy in funding for smart grid energy storage demonstration projects is a partnership of Premium Power and utilities National Grid and Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), along with teammate Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The group was awarded $7.32 million to run a three-year project that incorporates the fleet control engineering, manufacturing and installation of seven 500-kilowatt/6-hour energy storage systems. The project will use Premium Power’s proprietary Zinc-Flow (R) technology. The Zinc-Flow technology is a flowing electrolyte energy storage system based on zinc bromide chemistry. Premium Power’s product is modular and can be used in any application from residential homes to utility scale applications.

The systems will be installed in Sacramento, California, Everett, Massachusetts, and Syracuse, New York beginning in the third quarter of 2010.

In the distribution of stimulus funds to the state of Wisconsin’s State Energy Program– American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (SEP-ARRA) Clean Energy Business Loan Program, ZBB Energy has been awarded a $1.3 million loan to ramp up production of its zinc rechargeable energy storage system. The funds will be used to expand and modernize the company’s production facilities to increase its manufacturing capacity and create up to 175 new full-time positions.

zess526

Zinc-bromide flow cell technology could be one way to store renewable energy.
(above courtesy ZBB Energy)

Like Premier Power’s similar technology, the Zinc Energy Storage Systems (ZESS) can be used to store renewable power and can be scaled with multiple units to store power from the grid. The zinc bromide ZESS systems can also be used in homes or commercial buildings for onsite energy storage or become part of a distributed energy storage network.

The need for energy storage is also global.

In Japan, U.S. lithium-battery maker EnerDel is supplying batteries to a project linking a smarter grid, electric vehicles and renewable energies. It will be the first time that EVs, stationary grid storage, solar power and rapid charging infrastructure are combined in a real-world operating environment.

EnerDel’s batteries will be installed in a small fleet of electrified Mazdas and well as wired into a charging station for those vehicles. Grid as well as solar power from an array atop a retail store will be used to recharge the charging station batteries. The solar system and onsite battery storage combined with rapid charging will allow the use of direct current (DC) throughout the system, sharply reducing the amount of time needed to charge the vehicles, according to EnerDel. The solar/battery charging station also allows users to recharge without drawing power from the grid, a significant advantage at peak load times.

At the end of life as useful vehicle batteries, the batteries will be given a second life as storage for solar-generated electricity. The vehicles will be used in a car-share program.

Now, the growth of green power in the U.S. is being driven by a combination of state renewable energy mandates as well as an internal desire by utility companies to go green. For utilities, renewable energy may also be becoming a preferred choice over fossil and even nuclear power. After all, renewables can help the company image but also renewables can be added incrementally. A few megawatts, a solar project or an additional wind turbine, can be added as needed very quickly in a matter of months instead of taking years to build a big new power plant. In short, renewables are easier and quicker to deploy.

Perhaps someday soon power from grid-connected renewables will be distributed throughout the country or renewable power will be stored and used as needed, or perhaps a combination of the two. If this happens renewables will be like coal, round-the-clock power but without the emissions.

Links:

Tres Amigas, LLC
http://www.tresamigasllc.com

S&C Electric Company
http://www.sandc.com

Premium Power
http://www.premiumpower.com

ZBB Energy
http://www.zbbenergy.com

EnerDel
http://www.enerdel.com

DOE Smart Grid Energy Storage awards (scroll to bottom)
http://www.energy.gov/news2009/documents2009/SG_Demo_Project_List_11.24.09.pdf

--- Tres Amigas Requests FERC Approvals for Renewable Energy Hub.

--- ZBB Energy Receives Zinc Energy Storage Order from Powertech Labs.