Energy Storage
To address intermittancy of renewable energy technologies, energy storage is becoming ever more important.
There are number of technologies and determining the most suitable is a challenge.
Many existing technologies are compared by the Electricity Storage Association including Pumped Hydro, Compressed Air, Batteries & Flow Batteries, Capacitors and Flywheels. This website also highlights some potential new leading edge technologies.
Funding is also a challenge, with some entrepreneurs interested in community scale solutions and others on large-scale solutions.
The timeline for getting s system online is dependent on regulation, government support, capital requirements and confidence in paypack ability. The solutions which do well may not end up being the technically best solutions, but those which achieve shorter payback at lower risk.
Some more of the new technologies catching in the media which may emerge as forerunners include:
- Gravel Batteries (also called Pumped Heat Electric Storage) - see http://www.isentropic.co.uk/.
- Gravity Power - see http://www.gravitypower.net/
- Site anywhere Isothermal CAES - see http://www.sustainx.com/
- Hydrogen Slurry Storage - see http://www.sciencedaily.com/
- Hydrogen from cheap catalysts - see example of research at Berkeley.
And there quite a few more technologies.