We all know the importance of renewable energy resources. Decarbonization helps in reducing ‘carbon intensity’, lowering the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the burning of fossil fuels. This involves decreasing CO2 output per unit of electricity generated. Reducing the amount of carbon dioxide occurring as a result of transport and power generation.
Importance of Lithium-ion batteries
Lithium-ion batteries that are used to store energy have become a key partner of photovoltaic solar, wind, and hybrid power plants, especially in areas that are not connected to a strong grid. Coupling batteries with renewable energy generation allows that energy to be stored during times of low demand and released (or dispatched) at times of peak demand. They can respond faster than other energy storage or generation technologies. They are flexible and help in maintaining grid stability by turning on and off in fractions of a second.
Game-changing technology
According to a study led by the University of Otago, Batteries are potentially a game-changing technology as we decarbonize our economy, and their benefits are even greater when shared across communities. Reducing costs are seeing the rapid deployment of batteries for household use, mainly for storing solar and wind power for later use, but they could have a variety of uses in a future electricity grid said Michael Jack, Associate Professor, University of Otago.
“For example, they could be used to feed energy back into the grid when there is a shortfall in renewable supply. Or they could allow a house to reduce its demand on the grid during times of constraint, thus reducing the need for expensive new lines. As we move towards more renewable energy and increase our use of electric vehicles, these services would be beneficial to a local community and the national grid, not just the individual house with the battery,” he says.
Key Result
The researchers considered both loads smoothing around the average, and peak shaving, where the battery ensures grid power demand does not exceed a set threshold.
The size of the battery required for this purpose is much smaller — up to 90 percent smaller — if the houses are treated collectively rather than individually. For instance, if peak shaving occurred for demand above 3 kW per house, deploying batteries individually for 20 houses would require 120 kWh of storage, whereas deploying them collectively would only require 7 kWh. Sharing batteries or having one battery per 20 houses will be a much cheaper approach to providing these services.
Important Finding
“As peaks are mainly in winter, the battery would still be largely available for storing energy from solar cells in summer, so this would be an additional service and not competing with the main use of the battery,” Associate Professor Jack says.
Future Goals
Many households may have batteries or might be using these in some appliances. This will have smart controllers that enable them to reduce demand or feed electricity back into the grid to accommodate the fluctuations of variable renewable supply and minimize the need for grid infrastructure.
Story Source:
Materials provided by the University of Otago.
Journal Reference:
Jason Mair, Kiti Suomalainen, David M. Eyers, Michael W. Jack. Sizing domestic batteries for load smoothing and peak shaving based on real-world demand data. Energy and Buildings, 2021; 247: 111109 DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.111109
Featured Image Credits: CC0 Public Domain.
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