The problem wind power is, of course, that the wind doesn’t blow at the right speeds all of the time. Too low or not at all, and the turbine won’t turn because no or too little power would be generated. Too fast, and the turbine would likely be damaged, and so will switch itself off.  That means even though the electricity, when generated, is green and provided from a natural and renewable source, it cannot be relied upon, in isolation, to provide a constant, reliable source of energy.

The obvious solution is to store the power generated when it exceeds Grid requirements. But that is easier said than done. Large, grid-scale battery storage is one of the technologies now being pursued by many reserchers, inventors and companies, just as decades ago they pursued the most effective wind turbine designs

Sendai Substation Li-ion Battery Pilot Project

It began in 2013 when three Japanese energy companies were commissioned by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to design, build and test two energy storage systems amounting to a total of 80MWh. The first utilising 20MWh lithium-ion batteries, designed to address the problem of frequency variation in electricity supply from renewable sources. The second, a 60MWh redox flow battery system, also deals with frequency variation, but will also be used to research measures for adjusting the electricity supply-demand balance and to research technology to optimally control and manage the battery system.

Battery_solar_storage_Image_Solarpraxis_Andreas_Schlegel

The 20MWh lithium-ion battery project that Tohoku Electric has been commissioned to build will be situated at Nishisendai (west Sendai) substation in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, around 50 miles north of Fukushima. The batteries will be evaluated on how readily electricity supply can be adjusted for frequency variations owing to wind (and solar) power generation.

Sendai City
Sendai City

How will it work? The batteries will be centrally controlled by an automated system at the substation, regulating rates of charge and discharge of the batteries. If successful, the system will go a long way toward stabilising the grid for use with renewable energy and solving a problem that has been around since the first wind farm was connected to a Grid.  The lithium-ion battery testing system is now being built and will start operating in early 2015. It’s not going to be able to completely solve the problem of variable power creation from wind and electricity grid demand, but is expected to improve the feed by up to 10%. That’s quite significant, and of course may spark research and development of new and more efficient battery storage for wind and solar power.

Looking to the future, it is predicted that renewable energy storage will be the big thing over the next decade, with companies, universities and research labs chasing the goal of increasing battery storage capacity, flow in and flow out efficiency, and reducing costs. To the victor, the spoils!

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