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One of the biggest obstacles for implementing home-based power generation has been the lack of storage options. Grid tied net-metering options are available in many states, but not in all. And net-metering is, in many cases, not an especially attractive option when the homeowner's overproduction of electricity simply becomes the utility's windfall. And off-the-grid homes don't have this option available at all; some kind of storage is necessary. Conventional lead-acid type batteries need frequent, regular maintenance to be kept in proper condition. They also should be kept in special enclosures with ventilation to allow hydrogen gas (which can escape from the batteries in their normal course of operation) to escape and prevent an explosion hazard. Lead acid batteries are also only good for a limited number of cycles before they need to be replaced.
Ceramatec says its new generation of battery would deliver a continuous flow of 5 kilowatts of electricity over four hours, with 3,650 daily discharge/recharge cycles over 10 years. With the batteries expected to sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, that translates to less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour over the battery's life. Conventional power from the grid typically costs in the neighborhood of 8 cents per kilowatt hour.This technology is of potential interest to everyone, not just to homeowners with their own power generation systems. Many parts of the country offer off-peak rates for electricity that are lower than daytime costs. This is because demand is lower during evening and overnight hours. Along with overnight recharge of plug-in hybrid automobiles, houses with their own battery storage could store electricity overnight for use the following day. This would provide cheaper electricity for the homeowner, while also reducing the daytime demand on the grid. This, in turn, would be a more efficient use of existing grid infrastructure, and could help reduce demand for new generating plants.
This kind of distributed storage of electricity will also potentially make it much easier to incorporate sustainably-based generation into the grid. Methods to tell home storage units when to recharge could readily be based on existing utility systems that can turn off power for air conditioning during peak demand periods. This way, intermittent sources and local sources can more easily be incorporated into the grid, and a locally produced electricity (along with increased efficiency from reduced transmission losses) can only be helped by this technology taking off.
links: Popular Mechanics Daily Herald
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written by Bob Wallace, August 17, 2009
Some perspective...
Conventional lead-acid type batteries need frequent, regular maintenance to be kept in proper condition.
Once a month I push a button on my charge controller and it does an automated "equalization". It allows the batteries to over charge for an hour or two to bring all the cells back into the same performance characteristics.
Every three months I take off the battery caps and check the water level. I almost always have to add some distilled water, but not a lot. And I clean the battery tops and terminals with a solution of baking soda and follow with a fresh water rinse.
All of that takes a half hour or so.
They also should be kept in special enclosures with ventilation to allow hydrogen gas (which can escape from the batteries in their normal course of operation) to escape and prevent an explosion hazard.
Nothing more than a simple plywood box with a 1 1/2" vent pipe to the outside.
Adding a "diaper" in the bottom of the box makes filling/cleaning easier. No worry about extra water, it will evaporate. I use a piece of butyl rubber (think inner tube).
Lead acid batteries are also only good for a limited number of cycles before they need to be replaced.
Golf cart batteries, which I use have an expected life of 4-6 years. I did stretch one set to 7 years but they were showing definite signs of weakness. (I didn't try for an extra winter.)
Other lead acid batteries such as L-16s last longer, but they're heavier and over the long run are more expensive than golf carts.
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written by Flahooler, August 17, 2009
Distributed energy storage is certainly an advantage for utility companies, as it would allow them to better manage peak demand. I suppose this would provide some small cost benefit to the end user, as electric rates would be more consistent, since the utility does not have to purchase supplemental power during peak demand periods.
However, I think it's a mistake to tout the low-cost off-peak electricity benefit to the consumer. Imagine if a significant percentage of U.S. homes and/or small businesses were to install an energy storage system such as this. All of a sudden, you have a large number of people all wanting to charge their battery systems overnight. That low-demand period suddenly becomes a high-demand period.
To be fair, the energy isn't lost ... you get a majority of it back the next day. However, the increased demand for overnight charging will in turn drive up the cost, off-setting the reduced cost during the day. Ultimately, the utility wins and it ends up being a wash for the consumer. That's not to say it's a bad idea ... load balancing is important for the stability of the electric grid. Just saying that a system such as this is not likely to pay for itself in reduced utility rates alone.
However, I think it's a mistake to tout the low-cost off-peak electricity benefit to the consumer. Imagine if a significant percentage of U.S. homes and/or small businesses were to install an energy storage system such as this. All of a sudden, you have a large number of people all wanting to charge their battery systems overnight. That low-demand period suddenly becomes a high-demand period.
To be fair, the energy isn't lost ... you get a majority of it back the next day. However, the increased demand for overnight charging will in turn drive up the cost, off-setting the reduced cost during the day. Ultimately, the utility wins and it ends up being a wash for the consumer. That's not to say it's a bad idea ... load balancing is important for the stability of the electric grid. Just saying that a system such as this is not likely to pay for itself in reduced utility rates alone.
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written by Carl Hage, August 17, 2009
If they could actually pull this off, it would be a major advance-- a 20kWh battery for $2K is $100/kW about 1/3 the current price of NaS battery systems (utility scale). With the longer life, they would be cheaper than lead-acid batteries. The difference in price between peak and off-peak price is more than .03/kWh, so these units would pay for themselves, and at the same time replace the 30% efficient peaking generators with stored energy from 80% efficient plants or intermittent wind/solar.
The lower temperature and smaller scale means that it's practical for individual home use, but really it means it's practical for many applications-- it could be in a home, building, a box below a power pole in a neighborhood, at a substation, or inside the tower of a wind turbine.
The current 1MW/7MWh NaS batteries (reported here) use electric heating to start and need a backup generator to keep them hot, as they are designed to go through only a few freeze/thaw cycles. In this new battery, the sodium is solid, so it might not have the same limits on freeze cycles.
The company is really small, and the technology is far from production, so who knows if this is real. But the moral is that this is just one possible approach for a dramatic advance in energy technology-- a potential cost-effective solution to the energy storage problem, making practical a future with 100% renewable energy and greatly improved energy efficiency, reliability, and reduced need for massively expanded transmission lines.
The lower temperature and smaller scale means that it's practical for individual home use, but really it means it's practical for many applications-- it could be in a home, building, a box below a power pole in a neighborhood, at a substation, or inside the tower of a wind turbine.
The current 1MW/7MWh NaS batteries (reported here) use electric heating to start and need a backup generator to keep them hot, as they are designed to go through only a few freeze/thaw cycles. In this new battery, the sodium is solid, so it might not have the same limits on freeze cycles.
The company is really small, and the technology is far from production, so who knows if this is real. But the moral is that this is just one possible approach for a dramatic advance in energy technology-- a potential cost-effective solution to the energy storage problem, making practical a future with 100% renewable energy and greatly improved energy efficiency, reliability, and reduced need for massively expanded transmission lines.
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written by Bob Wallace, August 18, 2009
Actually this isn't a small company, nor do they say it will take them long to ramp up...
With some 21 plants producing advanced ceramic products worldwide, the expectation is that full-scale production of ceramic sheets for the new batteries could be tooled up in short order. In fact, only a handful of CoorsTek facilities would likely be employed.
The order of magnitude pencils out along these lines: a target of 20 gigawatt hours of storage in 20 kilowatt-hour battery increments equals 1 million batteries. Or using a different metric, 1 million square meters of thin ceramic electrolyte would yield 20 gigawatt hours of batteries, equal to California's entire spinning reserve.
Nobody at CoorsTek even blinks at such figures. The company already produces 3 million pounds of ceramic material per month.
Yes, that Coors....
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/article_b0372fd8-3f3c-11de-ac77-001cc4c002e0.html
With some 21 plants producing advanced ceramic products worldwide, the expectation is that full-scale production of ceramic sheets for the new batteries could be tooled up in short order. In fact, only a handful of CoorsTek facilities would likely be employed.
The order of magnitude pencils out along these lines: a target of 20 gigawatt hours of storage in 20 kilowatt-hour battery increments equals 1 million batteries. Or using a different metric, 1 million square meters of thin ceramic electrolyte would yield 20 gigawatt hours of batteries, equal to California's entire spinning reserve.
Nobody at CoorsTek even blinks at such figures. The company already produces 3 million pounds of ceramic material per month.
Yes, that Coors....
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/article_b0372fd8-3f3c-11de-ac77-001cc4c002e0.html
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written by Bob Wallace, August 18, 2009
Here's how I see it likely playing out...
If there is an amply large transmission line from wind farm to where the power is headed I see the wind farm installing the batteries. Then they would use the batteries to store cheap off peak energy and sell it out during high peak hours.
If the transmission line is undersized for peak demand, then I can see the utility companies owning the batteries and buying up off peak to use during high demand times and lowering their purchase prices.
Of course storage batteries could as well be owned by third parties who 'play the market'.
I'd bet that commercial interests take up most production and little of it is made available to the individual.
Just like NanoSolar, they're bought out into the future by large installations. (Although NanoSolar is promising to make some film available to individuals starting soon.)
For me the excitement is not about home ownership, but the way that affordable storage will make wind so much more usable.
Right now about 35% of produced electricity is 24/365 100% reliable if an adequate number of farms are connected on the same grid. Adding storage increases that percentage.
If there is an amply large transmission line from wind farm to where the power is headed I see the wind farm installing the batteries. Then they would use the batteries to store cheap off peak energy and sell it out during high peak hours.
If the transmission line is undersized for peak demand, then I can see the utility companies owning the batteries and buying up off peak to use during high demand times and lowering their purchase prices.
Of course storage batteries could as well be owned by third parties who 'play the market'.
I'd bet that commercial interests take up most production and little of it is made available to the individual.
Just like NanoSolar, they're bought out into the future by large installations. (Although NanoSolar is promising to make some film available to individuals starting soon.)
For me the excitement is not about home ownership, but the way that affordable storage will make wind so much more usable.
Right now about 35% of produced electricity is 24/365 100% reliable if an adequate number of farms are connected on the same grid. Adding storage increases that percentage.
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written by Caroline, September 08, 2009
Thank you for this post, it is good to see how numerous environment-friendly substitutes we can have in our daily life.
Lot of companies offer ways to change our consumption habits, and I found many of them on the Green Meetup website :
Lot of companies offer ways to change our consumption habits, and I found many of them on the Green Meetup website :
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written by Carol, September 15, 2009
I wouldn't worry too much about this battery ever being viable. If it is like all the other pipe dreams in Ceramatec's (PNNLS waste recovery, Environmental Barrier Coatings, Hydrogen from nuclear power plants, Fuel Cells, etc,) portfolio of failed government funded projects it will never go anywhere. Don't believe me then go ahead and search the Salt lake Tribune for all of Ceramatec's hot announcements that they claimed were mere months from becoming the hottest new revolution in technology. If this follows the rest of their hot new inventions it will peter out after they have soaked the taxpayer for all they can.
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written by Anthony, September 22, 2009
Green technology is going to make a huge impact in our eco system. I like hearing about new ways to improve our planet. I am all about going green.
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written by Kevin, December 31, 2009
Does anyone know how this form of energy storage compares to current flywheel companies such as Beacon who have already installed similar grid storage units? It seems that flywheels last almost indefinitely, achieve efficiencies near 100% (as they run in a vacuum) and the technology is basic and repetitively cheap.
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written by Mark McG, February 04, 2010
Much has not been said about Ceramatec's prototype performance such as:
How much energy is absorbed verses wasted and consumed in maintaining the bank's temperature of 90 C or 194 F.
Or if the battery leaks (self drains) like the NiMH and HaMenorah's Ion Banks.
Ha-Menorah (The Lampstand)has an outside the box power generation method which holds equally great promise. http://www.hamenorah.com/ and click on the "Power Distribution" button. A work-around was designed into the "Ion Banks" to preserve power for critical equipment.
How much energy is absorbed verses wasted and consumed in maintaining the bank's temperature of 90 C or 194 F.
Or if the battery leaks (self drains) like the NiMH and HaMenorah's Ion Banks.
Ha-Menorah (The Lampstand)has an outside the box power generation method which holds equally great promise. http://www.hamenorah.com/ and click on the "Power Distribution" button. A work-around was designed into the "Ion Banks" to preserve power for critical equipment.
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But I don't see this system being widely adopted by individual home owners.
Most people don't experience frequent power outages. I suspect that those who are concerned about outage are more likely to buy a $500 generator rather than a $2,000 battery for those few occasions. And with the battery there would be another cost for an inverter to change the DC battery output to usable AC, a few hundred to several hundred depending on how many things people wanted to run at one time.
Then there's the other issue that I haven't seen addressed, keeping the battery 98C/208F. Does that mean a propane/natural gas feed 24/365? Not good for something that will be rarely used.
Rather, I see these batteries as a profit center for utilities or enterprising businesses who set up large banks, purchase lower cost off-peak power and resell it into the peak demand hours.
They could put them in large, well insulated rooms and heat the room with less expensive power. (Off peak electricity plus solar assist.)
And, for the utility company it means less need to improve the incoming transmission lines to serve peak hour power and gives them the ability to maintain local service when large feed lines might be disrupted.
For me, I'll looking to affordable ultra capacitors. No need to keep them hot. And essentially unlimited charge/discharge cycles which would mean 'permanent' batteries for the rest of my life.