A look at the energy storage solutions | Sustainable Energy

when it comes to renewables it's clear that the winds of change have begun to blow but the big question is do we have the technology to store it in an efficient and cost-effective way in today's episode we meet inventive scientists who are on the case putting essential storage into place when it comes to renewable energy we want to use it not lose it but that's easier said than done when it comes to the wind and the Sun storing energy has long been the holy grail for scientists but fortunately there's progress and we're better to begin today's episode than in Sweden one of the world's leaders when it comes to renewable energy stay with us as we uncover a thriving energy storage scene ahead in the show we recharge our batteries with a spot of island hopping then dive underground to check out groundbreaking technology plus we meet quasi robots at the ready to store renewables and I got to catch up with professor Daniel Manson here at kth Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm a hive of energy research to talk about the latest developments in energy storage smart grids and beyond but first here are some interesting facts and figures from 2019 to 2024 experts predict that the global energy storage market will grow from 12 gigawatt hours to 158 gigawatt hours the US and China are expected to dominate the energy storage market going forward making up 54% of gigawatt hours deployed capacity by 2024 from 2017 to 2030 the global energy storage market is forecast to double six times from less than five gigawatt hours last year to over 300 gigawatt hours and 125 gigawatts of capacity by the end of the next decade renewable energy sources will account for approximately three quarters of the expected 10 trillion dollar global investment into power generating technologies by 2040 one common concern about wind energy is that it's unreliable but scientists here in Stockholm Sweden are working hard to ensure it doesn't blow hot and cold [Music] scientists at kth Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm a part of a team of energy experts planning a battery storage solution with smart technology for the island of Gotland home to approximately 60,000 people the island was an early adopter of wind power generation thanks to its ideal geographical location and with this new battery storage the researchers say they could almost double the installed power in fact by 2030 they aim to double the current production of wind and solar power on the Swedish outpost which could then provide renewable electricity to the Swedish electricity system on a larger scale the a monoid research is to develop the electric power system for our sustainable future so when we talk about Smart Grid technologies here it's really to facilitate to integrate more electricity from renewables and in also to include electrified transportations and to integrate the electric power system into the energy system and the battery storage is one key solution in this aspect Gotland isolated location also makes it an ideal testing ground to see how an entirely renewable energy system could work in Sweden the Gatlin pilot project I see as a perfect example on how we can use further develop an existing system integrate new electricity from wind and solar and try to do a cost efficient solution not limiting the need for new in stress structure the island is connected to the Swedish mainland and the rest of the swedish power system with two high-voltage direct-current links the researchers examined whether it would be cost-effective to build a third but it became clear that energy storage would be a far more effective move to integrate large amounts of renewable energy into the power system two issues need to be solved the one is that usually the energy is not produced where it's needed so that's a location problem and the second one is that the energy is being produced at a time when it's not needed so that's a timing problem so to overcome that two things can be done one is to build more transmission capacity so new power lines or the second to build more energy storage and then how you actually do that depends on the specific project and the specific requirements the vision for Gotland is to have a hybrid energy system which produces and stores vast quantities of renewable energy all on-site in a similar way to penny Kumud plant in wales the efficient storage for wind and solar still are under development and it's important to realize that there are different solutions in it because at the end what we want to do is to provide the customer with electricity when they need so we have to realise that this is a complex system with different alternative solutions in 2012 our full eight years ahead of schedule Sweden managed to reach the 50 percent target threshold of renewable energy the current target for the power sector is to rely on 100% renewable energy production by 2014 my vision for the future renewable energy storage is that we'll have different solutions with different technologies at different locations in electricity will be one of the key solver because it's a very safe and energy-efficient solver and we will see a change in the electrification of Transportation with efficient and innovative storage systems like this in the pipeline there seems to be nothing stopping clean energy from running like the wind professor Daniel Manson at kth Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in Sweden specializes in energy storage especially in smart grids he also focuses on smart electricity grids power system components the use of smart meters and privacy measures as well as the electromagnetic compatibility or EMC of large distributed electrical systems Daniel thank you so much for having us here at kth Royal Institute of Technology here in Stockholm now tell me how did you become interested in renewable energy storage and what is your main driver well it's a very interesting topic and it's very important topic multidisciplinary and I think that the main driving force for me as most researchers is scientific discovery beyond the ability to do some help can you talk us through your research into energy storage in smart grids so the research that mia and my group is doing basically aims to find the best suitable match for an energy storage in a given situation so an example of that would be if you have a wind power plant it's very good for you and very suitable to have a lithium-ion battery being short by that can you explain your work on stomp that's energy storage for smart meter privacy yes so the background for stomp is that smart meters are needed but there is a problem with the smart meter sending very detailed data to the utility or third party hole getting hold of the data and the problem comes with that with this data you can start to map the behavior of the user so for instance that can be used to for directed advertisements or if you have really detailed data you can identify such things as medical equipments dialysis machines and such what are the next steps for Sweden in terms of decarbonization well one thing that has to be done is to prove the situation from the domestic transport so cars there the co2 emissions have declined steadily since the 1990s but for a transportation of goods with trucks and such it has not so what good thing there would be to have this on rail traffic or sea traffic tell us about the Gotland project and what part it can play in Sweden's decarbonisation yes oh the Gotland project was very interesting project in that he looked at how to repurpose an existing distribution grid into a smarter grid and it was seen that it was possible to increase the maximum capacity of the grid without doing large changes to the grid and the final conclusion was that all the technology was there the main challenges were policy changes and market conditions in your view why are most countries behind Sweden when it comes to renewable energy well Sweden is very lucky in one instance and that most of our electricity comes from very clean sources half from hydroelectricity and the rest from nuclear but I also think that there is an awareness in Sweden for if possible use green technology or green products and that there has been a drive for how policy changes subsidies for PV and plants and etc what measures need to be taken for more countries to follow Sweden's exemplary use of renewable energy it's a difficult question and it will be dependent upon the situation of the country every region has to use the available researchers at their disposal River solar influxes ability to have instance pumped hydro storage go through policy changes etc but the key point is to impact the large energy usages of the country thank you so much for that Daniel stay with us after the break we pluck an inventive energy storage solution out of thin air storing wind and solar energy using air might seem like an unlikely solution but engineers in fleetwood England are digging deep to show it's entirely possible this is a compressed air energy storage or Kay's plant it may look like an ordinary field but underneath there's an extraordinary process happening ambient air is compressed and stored in underground caverns that store energy when that energy is needed the pressurized air is heated and expanded in a turbine driving a generator for power production Kay's in itself is not new the first plant started operations in hunt off in Germany in 1978 but there is most certainly new demand for this energy storage method store electric is tapping into the pressing need to store renewable energy from intermittent sources such as wind and solar but on a grid scale firstly we can store megawatts and gigawatts we can also support stall long durations meaning days weeks even possibly seasonal storage in addition we have a proven concept the first case plant in Germany has been running now for almost 40 years it shows 99 percent reliability I can tell you with the case plant the lights are just not going to go off one of store electrics priorities is to make its technology more energy efficient flexible and cost-effective than other case plants out there you can't store the air underground at much above ambient temperature but compressing the air heats it up to somewhere north of 650 centigrade so traditional compressed air energy storage puts that heat up a chimney wastes it and when you come to regenerate the electricity later they burn gas to put the heat back in so that you're not going to freeze your environments and the equipment and destroy it all what we do that is different is we extract the heat of compression we store it separately and we puts it back in during expansion which eliminates the gas burn and therefore eliminate store electric are keen to emphasize the safety of this energy storage method to communities near the plants importantly most of it is actually underground a big part of our plant is actually not visible that enables the farmland to be used as farmers would use it and the cows can graze as the cows would also graze in addition to that we've got the opportunity to actually repurpose equipment we also give the opportunity to the local community to build up a value chain a service chain enables them to modify or improve their capabilities and expertise so what they have as an expertise is ready for the future of tomorrow so now that store electric claimed to have hit on a solution for cost-effective energy efficient and environmentally friendly renewable energy storage what's next we want renewables to power at the electrical grid now to be able to do that we need to store that renewable energy we think the world economy can be a green world economy if we utilize this storage it may well be that in the near future this unique energy storage system will no longer be an underground movement instead thanks to compressed air energy storage we could well be powering our homes factories hospitals balancing the grid and more with clean energy exactly when we need it moving us all closer to meeting climate change targets now that definitely sounds like a breath of fresh air Daniel thank you for allowing us to join you in your lab today now tell us in your view is compressed air energy storage a promising storage solution when it comes to renewable energy yes if you can find a proper site such as a old cavern a salt mine or there are proper geological characteristics in around then it is feasible both technologically and economically given that compressed air energy storage first came about in the late 70s why do you think it hasn't taken off as a viable storage method for a renewable energy well the situation today is much more different and there is a larger awareness in in the possible climate change but I think that since it is a very site-specific technology then this is a problem finding the like right geological structures in the ground but also I think it's a problem that people are a little bit afraid of it they don't want it in wrong backyard and there has been some cases where they're afraid of salt from salt mine being deposit in a water and such of all the innovations of renewable energy that are right there which one stand out to you is one most likely to shape the future well I think it would be the battery technology that utilizes materials that are both abundant in the Earth's crust and easy to use and leave a very low impact when it comes to the mining and from cradle to grave when it comes to construction of the batteries but also materials that are not in conflict like Cobalt but still makes batteries that are long-lasting and have a high power capability and energy density can you briefly explain electromagnetic theory for us well so electro Matic theory is one of the basic fundamental theories and laws that we have it explains how our current and charges interact with each other and create electric fields and our electromagnetic field induces currents and such so it is used to design motorists generators but also computers and antennas and such so when looking at renewable energy systems like wind power plants wave power and cents this is the basic fundamental laws that we work with thank you so much for that Daniel stay with us now thought you knew everything there is to know about energy storage here's one common misconception you thought you knew think again me storage solutions are set fact innovative storage solutions are being found all the time it's possible to use co2 and sustainably produced electricity to produce other molecules such as methane which could be a viable solution for storing electricity generated from solar and wind energy co2 is converted into methane and then recycled again and again in a closed-loop process so that it forms a kind of chemical battery researchers believe that methane can store wind and solar energy for longer and on a larger scale than traditional batteries another method of storing electricity in molecules is the conversion of water to hydrogen via electrolysis this is more cost effective than methanation as there are fewer reaction steps so it seems the wind and solar energy can indeed be efficiently stored and in some cases storage could even go some way to solving the problem of excess co2 emissions coming up after the break we reveal the role of artificial intelligence in energy storage storing renewables on a major scale has been a major challenge until now in Millbrae California there's a company shining new light on storage with artificial intelligence stem couples energy storage with artificial intelligence so that its customers can store renewable energy on a major scale then they can use it efficiently when and where they need it saving time and money we build and operate the largest digitally connected network of intelligent energy storage solutions that's all cloud enabled and is driven by our AI software platform that we call Athena stems AI powered energy storage solution gives businesses flexibility and control over their energy spend we lower cost by storing electricity when it's affordable and using it later when costs are high shifting energy away from most expensive times of day in addition to businesses we also serve utilities and grid operators stims energy storage network or what we call virtual power plan as a service to utilities and grid operators enables them to provide local modular resources to address grid reliability issues and hosting capacity to maintain an aging distribution infrastructure especially in congested urban areas and regions with high renewable penetration as well as responding to increased customer demand for clean energy stem aims to create a cleaner efficient and more modern grid its products are designed to assess the grids local capacity and send energy when it's needed rapidly what we do is storage is we help that customer behavior that customer need get matched with that available energy supply by using the battery in the AI to predict both the availability of energy as well as the customer need and then using the battery effectively to shift those into a you know a balanced mode so we're using the ability of AI to predict the customer's needs as well as the ability to predict the availability and the cost of supply as well as the sustainability of that supply so that we match a customer's requirements with the available of energy both from the grid and from any on-site renewable generation the company is currently contracted to build 1,000 systems which amounts to over 380 megawatt hours of energy storage services in the US and internationally technology that stalls surplice solar energy is very welcome in sunny California where so much is produced on certain days that the state has had to curtail significant amounts stem say its products can harness this energy so that it can be used during the evening peak period when the grid is under intense pressure it's going to be a great future for renewables both in the US and globally cost continue to come down scale continues to go up the costs are driven by scale and solar and wind and we expect to see that continue to grow what's really compelling is all the value that storage can provide those two solutions that will actually help those industries grow and unlock various value streams that we can apply with our athina platform into those services and actually lever up the returns for the wind and solar developers going forward so going forward artificial intelligence may well be the brains behind the beauty of vast quantities of clean energy stored safely at the ready to cope with the peaks and troughs of energy demand [Music] Daniel what are the benefits of using artificial intelligence when it comes to renewable energy storage systems well the benefits will be when you have a lot of energy storage in the grid there need to be a lot of forecasting and modeling to maximize the power produced and to coordinate all the storages with all the renewable energy will be very difficult and so they artificial intelligence techniques can be a way of doing this in a more efficient manner when it comes to renewable energy storage systems that backup the grid which do you think are most useful and why well what we have seen in our research is that it is highly dependent upon what you want the storage to do what role should it fulfill should it increase the power quality or of the grid should it just shift energy from one time or another in the grid or should it help with integrating wind power so it's very very dependent upon what you want the storage to do but what we have seen is that in most cases for a user a battery energy storage seems to be in general the best solution what do you say to renewable energy skeptics who say that renewable energy storage will never be efficient enough well just a solar influx on the earth is many times more than what we actually use in energy so if we just had a distributed large PV plant this would be enough but of course this will require large investments in infrastructure but also policy changes and of course changes in lifestyle but Easter will there is a way so it can be done of all your current research what are you most inspired by in terms of the future of energy storage I think it's the idea that we could have a distributed energy storage in people's home and they could have renewable energy at their home and in that way we can with this matching of the storage to renewable energy we can solve a lot of problem at the user level of course there will be some Neenah largely for in the grid also but we can do a lot to use the level to wrap up Daniel tell us what are Europe sections for the future of the energy storage market well hopefully the prices of the battery storage system will drop but I also think that there would be a larger use of batteries that are using more abundant material that has a less ecological footprint but hopefully we will see in the future a system where we have cost sharing of energy storage so for instance in an apartment block having a solar cells on the roof they will have one larger storage that they share and any surplus of that they can sell so hopefully and probably we will see a newer financial models thank you so much for your time Daniel it's been great talking to you so with innovative storage solutions in place it's clear that the sun is shining on renewable energy and whether it's delivered to us via new batteries from deep underground or by artificial intelligence we could soon have it stored up safely and ready to use wherever and whenever we need it next time we catch a glimpse of committed citizens and communities joining together and rallying around to build finance and map out a cleaner energy landscape and you can join our discussion and send us questions for our next expert on twitter at CNBC energy using the hashtags ask SE and sustainable energy but for now that's all we've got time for so until next time keep thinking green goodbye you

Channel: CNBC International TV

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Keywords: CNBC international, sustainable energy, energy business, energy renewables, sustainable development, sustainable energy cnbc, clean energy, clean energy future, clean energy technology, carbon capture and storage, carbon capture, energy stores and systems, energy stores, storing renewable energy, renewable energy storage, renewable energy storage solutions, renewable energy battery storage, renewable solar energy storage, energy storage technologies, energy storage systems

Id: ljKFr_o24jo

Length: 24min 43sec (1483 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2019