Energy storage

Any renewable energy installation on the Latin American island of Puerto Rico must include storage, according to a new rule by a state-owned electricity supplier Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica (AEE). 

Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and the AEE, which is the island’s sole utility provider, have stated for frequency regulating equipment there must be storage equal to 30% of the generating capacity and for ramping services it should be equal to 45%.

The island struggles with intermittent power from renewable sources being connected to the electricity grid— a problem this ruling will address.

The required storage levels of 30 and 45% mean the focus will be on high power options such as flywheels and supercapacitors rather than batteries and electrochemistry solutions.

Renewable energy developers are keen, with 64 already submitting plans that meet the technical requirements. AEE hopes 600MW of generating capacity will be built on the island, this would boost renewable generation on the island from 1% to 6%.

Oxis Energy is collaborating with Proinso to develop a prototype energy storage system to integrate with PV systems.

Proinso is a PV inverter and system supplier, it is working with the lithium-sulphur battery developer to create a storage system for commercial release later this year.

Xtreme Power has expanded its lithium-ion battery energy storage systems on the Hawaiian island of Kauai with the addition of 2MW of power installed on at 12MW.

This is the eighth energy storage system Xtreme Power has installed in Hawaii including an existing 4.5MW system in operation in Kauai.

The energy storage is installed concurrently with 12MW photovoltaic system. The batteries will provide ramp rate control and fast frequency response and lessen the island’s reliance on diesel fuel.

The project is due for commissioning in May 2014.

Energy storage consultancy Clean Horizon has signed a deal to license battery performance data from France’s Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA).

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Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has won €150,000 ($203,000) funding from the European Research Council (ERC) for a one-year nanotechnology project to develop 2D-based nanomaterials for ultra-thin, flexible supercapacitors for energy storage.

Professor Valeria Nicolosi, a research professor at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), told the Irish Times that her project 'Ultrasonic spray deposition: Enabling new 2D based technologies' focuses on looking at the economic and technical feasibility of using one-atom-thick materials.  TCS will explore “liquid exfoliation” of atom-thick flakes of materials with useful properties.

According to some nanotechnologists, the key to supercapacitors' performance improvement is to use materials that have a high surface area are mechanically robust, strain-resistant, electrochemically stable and electronically conducting.

 “There are hundreds of materials that can form two-dimensional layers, and the behaviours of these ultra-thin materials means there could be the potential to build devices that charge and discharge thousands of times over and still retain the same efficiency,” she said.

“The advantage of this technique is that you can produce billions and billions of layers within hours, it doesn’t involve any heavy chemistry, it doesn’t involve particularly challenging protocols and yet it produces loads of these materials.

In all 33 scientists from 15 countries around the EU received €150,000 grants from the ERC, in its latest funding round for proof-of-concept projects.