Comments on: Megawatt Storage Farms

By: Alan P Hunter

Alan P Hunter — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:15:16 +0000

Obviously there will be a continuing technological advancement to be factored in somewhere too. NaS batteries are only one side of the story as a couple of commenters have already mentioned.

By: John Galt

John Galt — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:42:31 +0000

There was a pumped storage system at Tam Sauk mountain (the highest point in Missouri). The dam broke a few years ago, creating quite a disaster.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:27:17 +0000

Interesting that there is no mention of using reservoirs to save energy for times of peak demand. North of NYC there are basically two giant lakes. The first is on the top of a mountain and the other is at the base of the mountain. At night, when electricity is cheap, they pump water to the top. During times of peak demand, they let the water flow back down past turbines that generate electricity.

The facility that I visited was fairly old and was still capable of greater than 80% efficiency. I would like to think that number would be higher today and also offers a large scale alternative to meet peak demand. That one system that I just mentioned was capable of generating as much electricity as a large nuclear power plant when necessary.

Chris
LEED AP
http://www.everblueenergy.com/

By: Kevin Cullen

Kevin Cullen — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:23:09 +0000

For storage of wind generated power applications, there is an important distinction between the VRB’s vanadium based flow batteries and NaS’s sodium sulfur batteries.

The key difference lies within the battery’s respective ability to accurately determine its state of charge.

A “gusty” wind environment is characterized by its constant charge/discharge/charge/discharge cycles — often many hundreds of times per day.

Sodium sulfur battery technology is not able to accurately determine its state of charge which leads to this battery type being potentially overcharged, which is damaging to the membranes in the cells.

The vanadium based technology, on the other hand, can easily measure this state of charge so no danger of overcharging exists.

The bottom line, given the gusting nature of what blows, is that wind is just not part of NaS’s game.

By: Kelly Rivas

Kelly Rivas — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:01:54 +0000

In a perfect world, we as citizens wouldn’t have to challenge and force our energy providers to produce sustainable electricity. We’re not a perfect world. Our energy providers produce electricity for profit, not for us. We want clean sustainable energy NOW. They want more of our money, FOREVER. I say we pass prop. 7 and force the necessary shift in business to provide sustainable consumer options. Climate change isn’t waiting for us to take action and we certainly aren’t invited to take action in much decision making. Prop. 7 provides the invite and ability. Let’s do this now. This is the most urgent issue facing us which all other issues stem from.

By: Energy Industry mobile edition

Energy Industry mobile edition — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:19:31 +0000

[...] like wind and solar, less predictable than mainstream sources, load balancing becomes trickier. According to EcoWorld: In California the demand peak is around 50 gigawatts, and the off-peak minimum can get as low as [...]

By: CarbonSignal » Would large-scale green power bust the budget?

CarbonSignal » Would large-scale green power bust the budget? — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:01:12 +0000

[...] a recent editorial, ECOworld.com presents some staggering figures for the cost of California’s Proposition 7 (Prop.7) which, [...]

By: Tom Konrad

Tom Konrad — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:27:42 +0000

Why no mention of Vanadium Redox Batteries? They scale up better than NaS because they’re flow batteries.