NPR’s Morning Edition has been looking at the future of the grid recently in a new 10-part series called “Power Hungry: Reinventing the US Electric Grid.” They also developed some cool web-specific content on the topic, like this interactive map of the US that shows existing and planned transmission lines, power plants, and renewable capacity. While the whole series is worth checking out, here are the must-listen “episodes” if you’re interested in the smart grid:
I recently wrote a post about devices that harvest the kinetic energy of moving water, and noted how technologies that capture such energy are finding their way into doors, turnstiles, and dancefloors. Well, an Israeli company called Innowattech seems to have taken this concept of capturing wasted mechanical energy further than anyone else, and is pitching energy-harvesting roadways, runways, and railways.
How do they do this? Using a network of piezoelectric generators that are embedded into the surface of the roadway (or runway or railroad) which can harvest energy from weight, motion, vibration, and temperature changes. In addition, the company claims to have developed an energy storage system to attach to their piezoelectric generators.
Innowattech says one kilometer of roadway can produce up to 500 kW of electricity every hour, and the faster and heavier the vehicles, the more energy the roadways can generate - sounds perfect for the driving habits of Americans.
A few months ago I was at a conference on energy storage in Waltham MA and there, something I had long suspected, was confirmed - A123 Systems was indeed expanding into the utility-scale energy storage market. By leveraging the lithium-ion battery technology they developed for their powertools and vehicle products, A123 was able to develop a storage unit capable of providing ancillary services to the grid. What are these “ancillary services” that batteries can address? Ancillary services are required to ensure the reliable delivery of electricity and represent some of the highest-value and most-lucrative capacity in an electric market. Most of these services are designed with “grid stabilization” in mind and are used to address short-term fluctuations in supply and demand, frequency, or voltage.
While grid-connected storage isn’t a new concept, it has only been deployed in limited fashion. Battery-based technologies have been held back by technical limitation (i.e. lead-acid) and cost. Pumped hydropower, which uses the flow from water resevoirs to spin turbines, has been a form of storage that has seen relative success (about 90 GW deployed worldwide), but it is hampered by topographical requirements, cost, and construction time.
Different storage technologies have different characteristics and therefore different applications. For example, pumped hydro is not well-designed for rapid, short duration dispatch, but it can provide capacity for longer periods. This is what makes two rapidly growing battery technologies so exciting: lithium-ion and sodium-sulfur.
We usually only hear about fuel cells in relation to discussions about the perpetually around-the-bend hydrogen economy, but the technology is actually more than a century old. In fact, there are numerous types of fuel cells that can run on a variety of fuels - some are even being examined as alternatives to batteries in consumer electronics. What is true across all types of fuel cells is that they produce electricity from a chemical reaction, rather than through combustion. Well Bloom Energy, formerly Ion America, is reportedly ready to debut a fuel cell ready to run on any hydrocarbon, from coal-derived gas to natural gas to renewable fuels like ethanol. The company’s stealth operation has recently been “revealed” through a large expose on the company’s backers, Kleiner Perkins, in the NY Times Magazine.
© EnerNOC, Inc. 2004 — 2008. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions
