The development of new technologies for storing renewable energy seems to be a key aspect for the energetic "turnaround". With this post we want to illustrate this point, and motivate you to keep reading and learning about what is going on in the fascinating world of clean energies.
This article shows some results and challenges of using lithium ion batteries connected to the energy generators: "the fluctuating supply of electricity based on photovoltaics and wind power can be stored until the time of peak consumption".
http://www.energyharvestingjournal.com/articles/storage-systems-for-renewable-energy-00004648.asp?sessionid=1
A fundamental requirement of energy supply, comes from strong fluctuation in energy consumption. With appropriate storage and fast discharge, energy requirements during peaks in energy consumption can be supplied with minimum "effort". This means being able to "fluctuate" in supply, minimizing the cost of generation overall. The following article discusses the impact development of new technology could have. "When storage becomes cheap and massive, the impact will be huge.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-27/ski-lifts-help-open-25-billion-market-for-storing-power-energy.html?cmpid=yhoo
Another important reason for needing optimal storing energy comes from the fluctuation of output of the renewable sources. For example, for a 4KW photovoltaic generator, "cloud cover can cause generation to drop by 80% in just a few seconds" according to SaftBatteries.
Apart from minute-to-minute variations, we also have daily variations in the generation of both wind an solar energies, due to the obvious dependency of climatic variables. As an example, the following graph shows energy output for wind generation in Ireland for different days:
So, not only is storage important for "demand-buffering" but also for "supply-buffering". Apparently, it is the current bottleneck for a potential massive conversion to clean energies. It is not an easy challenge, but the first step of recognizing the problem has been made.
The following links show different experiments using super-capacitors with pen ink and iron-air batteries as alternatives:
Are any of them definite solutions? Apparently not yet, but the wind seems to be blowing on our backs, pushing us forward to a new world...
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