How energy storage will kill fossil fuel.

we've talked about energy storage quite a lot on this channel we've looked at some of the different ways to store energy from the obvious stuff like lithium-ion batteries to arguably less tangible things like storage and hydrogen through to new innovations like liquid air batteries and there's a whole host of other solutions in development all over the world energy storage is the key to unlocking existing electricity grids and allowing renewable energy sources like wind solar and hydro to bring about the decarbonization of our global energy systems that we so desperately need up until now though in the vast majority of cases grid operators have only been using these energy storage solutions as a bolt-on to their existing infrastructure to help smooth out some of the temporary spikes in demand they don't provide the bulk of everyday electricity provision for our homes factories and offices in most cases that means grids continue to generate the bulk of the day-to-day power from fossil fuels like coal and gas or from nuclear energy restricting the extent to which those pesky intermittent renewables have been able to replace them but that dynamic is beginning to change and it's changing fast and it's leading some commentators to suggest that we now stand on the brink of what they describe as an energy storage revolution hello and welcome to just have a think in very basic terms electrical grids consist of three elements generation transmission and distribution the most common way to generate grid scale power in the first place is to use flowing water or high pressure steam to drive a turbine connected to an electrical generator generators by their nature deliver an oscillating or alternating current which essentially means the current flows in waves as opposed to the continuous straight line or direct current that you get from things like batteries and solar panels so our transmission systems use alternating current instead of direct current which is why solar panels and batteries run through inverters that convert their direct current into alternating current to make them compatible the frequency of these waves of alternating current is about 60 cycles per second or 60 hertz in north america and parts of south america and about 50 hertz in most other parts of the world that might seem like unnecessary information but there's a reason why i mention it which i'll come back to in a minute anyway ac power has some useful advantages over dc power for a wide area grid the main one being that the voltage of ac supply can be stepped up or stepped down using transformers which by their nature need a variable current in a coil of wires at one end to induce a secondary current in a coil of wires at the other end without delving too much into it if you have fewer winds in the copper coil at the one end than the other end then the voltage induced in that end will be lower but that only works with alternating current it doesn't work with direct current why is that useful well because really huge voltages come out of the initial power generators and those voltages provide the push to allow currents to travel over the very long cross-country distances to each neighborhood so transformers play a crucial role in stepping down the voltage to a local supply level and then down again into the 120 or 240 volts that we use in our homes demand for electricity varies considerably throughout the day and matching supply to that demand is one of the main challenges of the electricity grid operators supply has to meet demand in real time when you switch on your light at home you're effectively using electrical energy that was generated at a power station a few tenths of a second ago when everything was dominated by coal and gas power plants could be sped up or eased down somewhat to accommodate the increases and decreases in demand across the day and the flywheel effect on the generators meant their momentum could continue generating electricity for some time which helped to smooth out the peaks and troughs more expensive power plants known as pika plants also exist on grid systems to help deal with large spikes like in the evenings when everyone gets home and from the early 1980s most grids have had demand response supply agreements in place with large industrial units and factories to shed power when there was a shortage these large electricity users will shut down non-essential machinery on request in return for a nice juicy compensation payment from the grid operator which in turn means the grid operators can keep the lights on for the rest of us when renewables like wind and solar came along they posed an additional challenge for grid operators with their extremely variable power outputs and intermittency it's worth pointing out here that everything connected to the grid has some level of intermittency wind and solar are pretty obvious because we can see when the skies get cloudy and we know it gets dark at night and we can tell when it's not windy but fossil fuel plants and nuclear power stations also have occasionally variable outputs and failure rates and operational limitations even something as apparently innocuous as hot ambient air on a summer's day at a gas-fired power plant can lower that plant's electricity output quite significantly just when the residents nearby are switching on their air conditioners and increasing their electricity demand and that's where the frequency that i mentioned earlier comes into play because frequency isn't only a function of the speed that the turbines are turning at it's also a function of energy demand on the grid at any given time large imbalances between electricity produced and electricity consumed can result in power surges or brownouts or in worst case scenario even a complete system collapse if the frequency on the grid starts deviating from 50 or 60 hertz the transmission system operator or tso needs to influence the amount of energy supplied to or taken from the grid and that brings something called frequency containment reserve or fcr into play fcr has to respond very quickly and accurately to frequency variations renewables can make this job even more difficult but energy storage solutions like grid scale lithium-ion batteries are matching that challenge with their ability to instantly and precisely respond to frequency fluctuations in a way that gas and coal-fired power plants simply can't manage with their generator ramp-up delay times earlier this year the european association for storage of energy or ease released this report called the european market monitor for energy storage the report points out that europe's frequency containment reserve market is now interconnected between germany france austria belgium the netherlands and switzerland with denmark due to joined soon and that interconnection has further increased the efficiency with which battery storage can balance the supply and demand across the majority of the continent but current in basha head of market analysis at the energy consultancy firm clean horizon told energy storage news recently that frequency control is not the only thing that batteries can do and that the business case for batteries in the uk has already shifted from frequency regulation to more wholesale revenues from the balancing mechanism to day ahead and intraday trading it's just a matter of time he says before we start doing this in europe so what's that all about well according to this definition by the irish operator simo the day ahead market or dam is a single pan-european energy trading platform in the ex-ante or estimated time frame for scheduling bids and offers and interconnected flows across participating regions of europe the dao involves the implicit allocation of cross-border capacity through a single centralized price coupling algorithm called euphemia the algorithm taking into account the cross-border capacity advised by the transmission system operators determined prices and positions for all participants in all coupled markets the intraday market or idm allows participants to adjust their physical positions closer to real time based on more up-to-date information for their traits to occur and of course it won't just be lithium-ion batteries providing these services either this is where longer duration systems like liquid air and flow batteries amongst others will come into their own as the race to capitalize on this lucrative and rapidly expanding energy storage market really starts to hot up the european energy storage market report that we just looked at points to the fact that policymakers in europe are themselves now seeing the value that energy storage can bring to a rapidly decarbonizing network stating that the future of energy storage in 2020 in europe remains positive as the energy transition progresses and this initiative from the eu called the clean energy package or cep is yet another positive boost for energy storage according to e's senior policy advisor brittany elzerai with the technology expected to play a key role in meeting the cep's ambitious 32 percent by 2030 renewables target elserai says the package sets a high level of ambition that can only be achieved with the widespread deployment of flexibility solutions such as storage and it's not just grid scale or so-called front of meter energy storage that's set for a revolution either the report says the clean energy package which is due for ratification by all eu member states in 2021 will include ways to incentivize behind the meter solutions as well smart meters in our homes combined with solar panels and battery storage like the tesla powerwall as well as battery to grid technology and electric vehicles and domestic appliances will all play their part in smoothing demand on the distributed smart grids currently being built out across the continent making large centralized fossil fuel power plants increasingly economically unviable and obsolete valeska gotka of the german energy storage association goes a step further in this february 2020 article arguing strongly that energy storage needs to become the vital fourth pillar of the energy transition alongside generation transmission and distribution and systems like this one from power ledger are bringing blockchain into the tracking and management of millions of daily micro and macro transactions as the company's co-founder dr gemma green puts it the opportunity power ledger has identified is to link the macro of green energy production to the micro through a trading platform that businesses and everyday consumers can use to trade energy peer-to-peer and to the market to stabilize the system there are many possible configurations she says a household with solar panels can sell excess power to a neighbor a household with a battery can sell services to the grid to keep it stable another household using the platform can choose to source its power from an external renewable source businesses can do the same either selling their excess renewable power or using the platform to tap into a green source all of this is made secure and convenient through the power ledger platform's use of blockchain technology to record and track energy transactions this allows for greater transparency increased automation and reduced possibility of human error for energy retailers the blockchain-enabled platform improves efficiencies by enabling peer-to-peer transactions virtual power plants from small batteries combining renewable energy certificate training and energy provenance tracking the energy generation and storage revolution in europe is well underway but it's not alone according to a report from market analyst navigant research seven other countries are following the eu in the uk and together they'll account for 80 percent of global utility scale energy storage china tops the list of course but australia india japan south korea brazil and the united states are all fully engaged in the transformation of their grids and the integration of energy storage solutions just this month pv tech reported on a landmark ruling by the united states court of appeal in the district of columbia the court ruled against petitioning from the u.s national association of regulatory utility commissioners which sought to prevent legislation called the federal energy regulatory commission order 841 from passing the success of that order means that distributed energy storage units can now compete directly with fossil fuel resources to provide grid services in wholesale markets chairman of the ferc neil chatterjee called it the single most important act we could take to ensure a smooth transition to a new clean energy future californian supplier powercore sums up the north american challenge and opportunity very well telling us that an investment of 7.5 trillion u.s dollars in renewable energy is expected over the next 20 to 25 years and the energy storage is set to become a 20 billion per year market by 2040 a tenfold increase from today they point out that the united states and canada rank first and second in the world in the amount of electricity used per person and over the next 20 to 25 years this consumption is expected to increase by 2 percent per year representing 10 trillion dollars in new electricity investment 75 of that growth is expected to come from renewable sources thanks to the rapidly falling cost of renewable energy and energy storage north america's electricity grid is approximately 120 years old and powercore suggests that about a trillion dollars of investment is needed over the next 10 years just to maintain its current performance energy storage is accelerating the development of u.s distributed smart grids similar to the european model resulting in the delivery of electricity with more reliability and efficiency the reduction in the frequency and duration of power outages improvements in security a lowering of peak loads and the minimization of repairs on the grid infrastructure naysayers will probably disagree with much of what i've presented today but while those people debate and deny what's happening right in front of them the simple fact is that these networks are being built out in many key areas of the world making the economics and practicality of renewable energy sources ever more competitive against fossil fuels as each day goes by as usual if you have a view on this developing market good or bad for or against then jump down to the comment section below and share your thoughts there that's it for this week though a big thank you to our supporters over at patreon who keep the channel going and also keep it fully independent and a special shout out to the folks who've joined in the last couple of weeks with pledges of 10 or more a month they are scott vi greg montezi charlie george steve reed justin lawler randy ross wayne g and bobby and emilio garcia and of course a big thank you to everyone else who's joined since last time too you can get involved in a patreon sort of a way and help influence the direction of the channel by visiting www.patreon.com forward slash just have a think and you can support the channel absolutely for free by subscribing and hitting that like button so we get noticed by youtube search algorithm and get the message to more and more people each week then easy to do that of course you just need to click down there somewhere or on that icon there and don't forget to hit the bell icon as well so you get notified of new content as always thanks very much for watching have a great week and remember to just have a think see you next week

Channel: Just Have a Think

Views: 346,412

Keywords: energy storage, battery storage, utility scale battery, liquid air battery, flow battery, smart grid, distributed smart grid

Id: 1DFKxoD_a3k

Length: 15min 50sec (950 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/jamesaspinwall]

Timely video from a climate crisis expert. He explains the growing market of energy storage and its influence on renewable energy production. I have watched his channel for over a year, because like me, he is worried about the lack of policies to reduce our carbon emissions.

[u/loudan32]

Thanks for sharing this. Great content!

I immediately went to look for other videos and I find this older one also quite relevant here. https://youtu.be/f6_OVfrc_5A It defends the advantages of energy storage in hydrogen, rather than batteries. In a sense this is "the competition" to Tesla energy. This is strategy is (also?) being implemented in Europe and I tend to lean in favour of it, more than Tesla Energy (even though I'm a Tesla fan and believer, and I am definitely not defending HFC trucks)