Due to the growing demand for electricity, the importance of developing technologies and manufactured products that consume less and less electricity is growing.
Besides, if it is not possible to store energy, what technologies can solve this problem?
Please reply
Howdy Dariusz,
Your question starts queer. You state:"If it is not possible to store energy, which technologies can solve this problem"? According to me a panoply of technologies are available to store energy. Hence, your question has been answered since quite some time. It is perfectly possible to store energy with different technologies and as different physical entities or with different physico-chemical techniques.
A agree though that, the first aspect in energy consumption is to reduce its consumption and to increase the efficiency of energy production. But since some technologies do not produce energy constantly, but with changing intervals and magnitudes, buffering systems are prime to provide for a constant provision of energy. These buffering systems are typically energy storage systems. Energy storage is used as well in an increasing number of tools, machines, mobile systems, etc. What do we have in store as energy storage systems which can solve your problem and that of producer/consumer stable energy provision, hence durable energy, for the next generations of humanity in general?
Energy comes in multiple forms including radiation, chemical, gravitational potential, electrical potential, electricity, elevated temperature, latent heat and kinetic. Energy storage involves converting energy from forms that are difficult to store to more conveniently or economically storable forms.
Energy storage is considered to a game-changing solution for the integration of fluctuating renewables, which can be used to support system frequency and voltage, smooth power, and provide fault ride through support. The electrical energy storage technologies are grouped into six categories in the light of the forms of the stored energy: potential mechanical, chemical, thermal, kinetic mechanical, electrochemical, and electric-magnetic field storage. The technologies can be also classified into two families: power storage and energy storage.
Mechanical storage
- Compressed air energy storage (CAES)
- Flywheel energy storage
- Gravitational potential energy
- Hydraulic accumulator
- Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (pumped hydroelectric storage, PHS, or pumped storage hydropower, PSH)
Electrical, electromagnetic storage
- Capacitor
- Supercapacitor
- Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES, also superconducting storage coil)
Biological
Glycogen
Starch
Electrochemical (Battery Energy Storage System, BESS)
- Flow battery
- Rechargeable battery
- UltraBattery
Thermal
Heat storage systems
Cryogenic energy storage, Liquid air energy storage (LAES)
- Liquid nitrogen engine
- Eutectic system
- Ice storage air conditioning
- Molten salt storage
- Phase-change material
Seasonal thermal energy storage
- Solar pond
- Steam accumulator
- Thermal energy storage (general)
Chemical
- Biofuels
- Hydrated salts
- Hydrogen storage
- Hydrogen peroxide
Enough choices I would say. And the list above is not even complete.
Howdy Dariusz,
Your question starts queer. You state:"If it is not possible to store energy, which technologies can solve this problem"? According to me a panoply of technologies are available to store energy. Hence, your question has been answered since quite some time. It is perfectly possible to store energy with different technologies and as different physical entities or with different physico-chemical techniques.
A agree though that, the first aspect in energy consumption is to reduce its consumption and to increase the efficiency of energy production. But since some technologies do not produce energy constantly, but with changing intervals and magnitudes, buffering systems are prime to provide for a constant provision of energy. These buffering systems are typically energy storage systems. Energy storage is used as well in an increasing number of tools, machines, mobile systems, etc. What do we have in store as energy storage systems which can solve your problem and that of producer/consumer stable energy provision, hence durable energy, for the next generations of humanity in general?
Energy comes in multiple forms including radiation, chemical, gravitational potential, electrical potential, electricity, elevated temperature, latent heat and kinetic. Energy storage involves converting energy from forms that are difficult to store to more conveniently or economically storable forms.
Energy storage is considered to a game-changing solution for the integration of fluctuating renewables, which can be used to support system frequency and voltage, smooth power, and provide fault ride through support. The electrical energy storage technologies are grouped into six categories in the light of the forms of the stored energy: potential mechanical, chemical, thermal, kinetic mechanical, electrochemical, and electric-magnetic field storage. The technologies can be also classified into two families: power storage and energy storage.
Mechanical storage
- Compressed air energy storage (CAES)
- Flywheel energy storage
- Gravitational potential energy
- Hydraulic accumulator
- Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (pumped hydroelectric storage, PHS, or pumped storage hydropower, PSH)
Electrical, electromagnetic storage
- Capacitor
- Supercapacitor
- Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES, also superconducting storage coil)
Biological
Glycogen
Starch
Electrochemical (Battery Energy Storage System, BESS)
- Flow battery
- Rechargeable battery
- UltraBattery
Thermal
Heat storage systems
Cryogenic energy storage, Liquid air energy storage (LAES)
- Liquid nitrogen engine
- Eutectic system
- Ice storage air conditioning
- Molten salt storage
- Phase-change material
Seasonal thermal energy storage
- Solar pond
- Steam accumulator
- Thermal energy storage (general)
Chemical
- Biofuels
- Hydrated salts
- Hydrogen storage
- Hydrogen peroxide
Enough choices I would say. And the list above is not even complete.
There are several technologies for storing energy from renewable sources such as solar PV and wind turbines.
I'll provide brief examples in this posting but please feel free to read more about this topics in my posted lecture notes under the profile in ResearchGate.net. I develop these lecture notes as part of the course (entitled Green Energy Systems, GES) I developed and taught at Yale College, Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS), and Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES).
Here are a few examples to store electricity produced from renewable sources (solar PV and wind turbines):
1) Chemical storage in rechargeable Li-ion batteries. Also, using an integrated system of water electrolyzers, H2 storage, and PEM fuel cells.
2) Mechanical storage: Flywheel and compressed air storage.
3) Electrical storage: Super capacitors.
For thermal energy storage: You can use phase change material (PCM) to store thermal energy. Also, you can use reversible chemical reactions such as decomposition and recombining NH3 gas. There are many other thermo-chemical reactions for thermal energy storage and on-demand release.
These are just a few examples and please feel free to download and read my Yale lecture notes on Green Energy Systems.
Hope this helps answer your question.
Your premise is wrong, it is perfectly possible to store energy. We do need to redirect attention to longer term storage. Bill Gates is backing a solid gravity system. Southern California has used pumped hydro for decades, but their pump-turbines have only 50% loop efficiency. Substituting positive displacement with 90% loop efficiency, would be pretty easy. Flow batteries storage time is limited only by tank size. My personal favorite is a pair of co-axial flywheels in a well, where the flywheel rims, are from tire cord steel with a million psi yield strength.
Your hypothesis about the impossibility of storing energy is not false, but in fact insufficiently developed: in practice it is an impossibility to store sufficient quantities of energy (to meet different needs) at a reasonable financial cost, and without environmental effects worse than those of the energies (e.g. fossil fuels) that we want to replace.
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