Top 5 Coolest Clean Electricity Grid Technologies You ve Never Heard Of

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ENERGY INNOVATION

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SOURCE: Think Progress

By St ephen Lacey | Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 Tweet

Climate Pr ogr ess r epor ter Stephen Lacey br ings us an innovation update about some cutting-edge ener gy technologies that ar e solving major r oadblocks to r enewable ener gy deployment. For a long time an oft-r epeated mantr a of r enewable ener gy naysayer s says that because the wind doesnt always blow or the sun doesnt always shine, clean ener gy can never be scaled. Well, her e ar e the top five technologies youve never hear d of that ar e pr oving them wr ong.
The top five ways companies are integrating renewables into the grid are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. I ntelligent D em and Response M icr oinver ter s and M axim um Power Point Tr acker s W ind Ener gy M anagem ent Tools The Vir tual Power Plant The H ybr id Solar -Gas Power Plant

Explanations of each of these with videos are below.

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I ntermittent renewables at high penetrations will bring new challenges for the grid. But how big will they be? And is it true that wind and solar will necessarily need storage or natural gas back-up at high levels? The I nternational Energy Agency wanted to know, so it modeled a variety of high-penetration scenarios in eight geographic regions around the world. Hugo Chandler, a senior policy analyst with the I EA explains the organizations findings to Climate Progress: Variability is not just some new phenomenon in grid management. What we found is that r enewable ener gy is not fundam entally differ ent. The criticisms of renewables often neglect the complementarities between different technologies and the way they can balance each other out if spread over certain regions and energy types. Grid operators are constantly working to balance available supply with demand its what they do. There are always natural variations that cause spikes in demand, reductions in supply or create disturbances in frequency and voltage. Once you see there ar e a var iety of ways to pr oper ly m anage that var iability, you star t whittling away at the ar gum ent that you always need stor age or a m egawatt of natur al gas backup for ever y m egawatt of r enewable ener gy. Theoretical modeling is important. But what companies are doing in reality? Heres five of the top methods for integrating renewable energy into the grid proving that intermittency isnt the show-stopper that critics make it out to be.

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I ntelligent demand response is often called the killer app of the smart grid. Demand response is not a new concept but the intelligent part is still somewhat new.

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The demand-response leader, EnerNOC, is now applying this concept to renewable energy. The company announced earlier this year that it would work with a Northwestern transmission operator to help manage demand to meet the fluctuating output of wind electricity in the system. EnerNOC president David Brewster calls it the perfect dancing partner for wind. By ramping up demand at facilities during time of peak supply and lowering demand when supply drops off, the grid can respond to changing conditions in real time without the need for storage.

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I nverters are the gateway to the grid turning Direct Current electricity from solar PV systems to grid-friendly Alternating Current. Over the past several years, theres been a revolution in inverter technologies that allow project owners to more effectively regulate system performance. One technology, the microinverter, is installed on the back of individual panels, turning each module into its own unit and providing real-time data on how each is operating. Therefore, if clouds roll over a PV system, the Christmas tree light effect is avoided, and each panel still functions normally, maximizing the output of a system sometimes by 20% or more. Speaking of maximizing output, thats where Maximum Power Point Trackers (MPPT) come in. These pieces of power electronics are also installed on the back of individual panels. But theyre not microinverters; instead, they boost voltage to an optimal range for a central inverter, thus allowing the device to run more efficiently. By allowing a system owner to control a PV plant at the module level, you can boost performance on the module level and regulate voltage even as weather patterns change.

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SCADA systems that remotely monitor wind farm performance have been around for years but there are a host of new applications being developed that allow grid operators and utilities monitor system-wide performance in an easier, more compelling way. The Wind Energy Management System from the Portuguese company Logica is a great example. The company manages over 3 gigawatts of wind farms in the U.S. and Europe using its WEMS, which allows for real-time monitoring of a set of geographically dispersed wind plants providing the tools to balance voltage, ramp wind farms up and down quickly, and plan for maintenance.

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A company like EnerNOC provides the tools for better management on the demand side; a company like Logica provides the tools for better integration on the supply side.

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Virtual power plants combine intelligent demand response with supply-side management software, bringing distributed renewable energy plants together to form a virtual centralized resource. We previously wrote about Germanys Regenerative Combined Power Plant, a project that proved existing renewable energy technologies could provide 100% of the countrys electricity. The project blended three wind farms worth 12.6 MW, 20 solar PV plants totaling 5.5 MW, four biogas systems equaling 4 MW and a pumped storage system with 8.4 GWh of storage. By using geographically dispersed renewable resources that compliment one another, the plant operators were able to meet needs on the grid as supply and demand shifted. The project shows that with better information

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technologies and a balanced set of resources, the intermittency issue can be dealt with.

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While innovative grid management tools will allow us to scale wind and solar without an equivalent MW to MW backup, there will definitely be a need to better integrate renewables and fossil energies to boost output and maximize current infrastructure. Concentrating Solar Power can be a great way to increase efficiencies of newer fossil fuel-based infrastructure that may be around for a while. A number of companies are integrating direct-steam CSP technologies into coal or natural gas plants. FPL recently finished a 75 MW combined CSP/ natural gas plant in Florida, with plans to add 500 more MW of hybrid plants in the coming years; Areva Solar is building a 44-MW plant at a coal facility in Australia; and GE, which recently invested in e-Solar, plans to integrate CSP technology into its natural gas plants, boosting power plant efficiencies substantially. I n an ideal world, CSP would be developed on its own to phase out fossil-based plants. And that is happening. But in order to scale these technologies, drop costs and better utilize power plants that are in operation (or switch from burning coal to far more efficient natural gas), the hybrid approach is a very attractive option. Heres how one type of direct-steam CSP plant works:

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To categorically claim that intermittent renewables cant scale without hurting the grid ignores the very real innovations that are evolving today. As the I EAs Hugo Chandler explains: We want to explode the myth that theres a technological limit.

Stephen Lacey is a r epor ter with Climate Pr ogr ess, wher e this ar ticle is cr oss-posted.
Tags: Energy, I nnovation

http://scienceprogress.org/2011/06/top-5-coolest-renewable-energy-technologies-youv... 20/03/2013