Aest Review

advanced electricity storage technologies programme
Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper
december 2005
Published by the Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage. This report is based on collected material prepared by the Wyld Group Pty Ltd for the Australian Greenhouse Office. Commonwealth of Australia, 2005 This work is copyright. Information contained in this publication may be copied or reproduced for study, research, information or educational purpose, subject to inclusion of an acknowledgment of the source. Reproduction for purposes other than those listed above requires the written permission of the Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage. Requests and enquiries should be addressed to: The Director Climate Change Communications Department of the Environment and Heritage GPO Box 787 Canberra ACT 2601 Email: communications@greenhouse.gov.au
ISBN: 1 921120 37 1 IMPORTANT NOTICE PLEASE READ

This document is produced for general information only and does not represent a statement of the policy of the Australian Government. The Australian Government and all persons acting for the Government preparing this report accept no liability for the accuracy of or inferences from the material contained in this publication, or for any action as a result of any persons or groups interpretations, deductions, conclusions or actions in relying on this material.
CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.................................................................................................2 1 INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................2 2 STORAGE MARKET OPPORTUNITIES .....................................................................3
2.1 ENERGY STORAGE REBIRTH ................................................................................................. 3 2.2 ROLE FOR ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS ................................................................................ 4 2.3 APPLICATIONS OF STORAGE IN THE ELECTRICITY MARKET ..................................................... 6
2.3.1 Broad Application Sets ................................................................................................................ 6 2.3.2 Multifunctional Capabilities.......................................................................................................... 7
2.4 RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY AND STORAGE .............................................................................. 8

2.4.1 Storage Applications with Intermittent Renewables .................................................................... 8 2.4.2 Enabling High Renewables Penetration...................................................................................... 9 2.4.3 The Achilles Heels of Storage................................................................................................. 10
3 STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES ....................................................................................11

3.1 FORMS OF ENERGY STORAGE ............................................................................................. 11 3.2 THE DIFFERENT STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES .......................................................................... 12
3.2.1 Electrical Energy Storage.......................................................................................................... 12 3.2.2 Electrochemical Energy Storage ............................................................................................... 13 3.2.3 Kinetic Energy Storage.............................................................................................................. 15 3.2.4 Potential Energy Storage .......................................................................................................... 15 3.2.5 Chemical Energy Storage ......................................................................................................... 17 3.2.6 Thermochemical Energy Storage.............................................................................................. 19 3.2.7 Magnetic Energy Storage.......................................................................................................... 21 3.2.8 Thermal Energy Storage ........................................................................................................... 21
4 AUSTRALIAN ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES ............................................24

4.1 A SUMMARY LISTING........................................................................................................... 24 4.2 POSITION ON THE RDD&C CONTINUUM ............................................................................... 25
5 THE CHALLENGES...................................................................................................27
5.1 THE COST CHALLENGE ....................................................................................................... 27 5.2 THE COMPETITION .............................................................................................................. 29 5.3 PORTER'S ANALYSIS OF THE STORAGE MARKET .................................................................. 29
5.3.1 Rivalry among Competitors ....................................................................................................... 29 5.3.2 Barriers to Entry to the Market .................................................................................................. 30 5.3.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers .................................................................................................. 30 5.3.4 Substitute Products ................................................................................................................... 30 5.3.5 Bargaining Power of Customers................................................................................................ 30
5.4 KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ELECTRICITY STORAGE SYSTEMS........................................... 31
6 REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................33
Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This review paper has been prepared for the Advanced Electricity Storage Technologies (AEST) programme which is administered by the Australian Governments Department of Environment and Heritage. It provides a summary of the status of some of the energy storage technologies currently available in Australia and around the world. The AEST programme focuses on providing support for energy storage options that may be applied to renewable energy systems. The examples discussed in this paper may not necessarily apply or may not yet have been adapted or developed for renewable energy systems. Storage systems and associated issues are discussed in this paper in an attempt to inspire thinking about what systems could best be applied and demonstrated in Australia with the support of the AEST programme. Storage solutions for renewable energy systems will assist towards addressing current issues faced by the energy market. Such issues include increasing renewable energy capacity contribution and dispatchability, managing peak power load periods, overcoming transmission bottlenecks and addressing intermittent renewable generation contributions to the electricity grid such as power quality, short-term power fluctuations and increased volatility of spot prices for electricity due to higher delivery risk. Furthermore, cost-effective and reliable storage technologies that enhance renewable energy deployment, whether those storage technologies are invented in Australia or elsewhere, will significantly assist renewable energy market growth in Australia and globally. It is envisaged that the programme will assist in identifying technologies that can serve large regional wind or solar generation facilities that can be integrated with distributed rooftop solar and remote intermittent sources of renewable energy generation. Finally, it should be noted that storage is but one element in a suite of tools that will facilitate holistic solutions for high penetration of renewable electricity systems into the market. Storage is complemented by techniques such as better resource forecasting, demand management and importantly, innovative financing solutions to overcome the high capital cost barrier to entry for renewable electricity systems and storage subsystems.
INTRODUCTION
Energy storage in an electricity generation and supply system enables the decoupling of electricity generation from demand. That is, electricity that can be produced at times of either low demand, low generation cost or from intermittent renewable energy sources is shifted in time for release at times of high demand, high generation cost or when no other generation is available. Appropriate integration of renewable energy sources with storage systems therefore will allow for greater market penetration, with associated primary energy and emissions savings. The $20.4 million AEST programme was announced by the Prime Minister in June 2004 in the energy policy framework: Securing Australias Energy Future. The programme will strategically identify and promote advanced storage technologies in order to increase the ability of renewable energy-based electricity generation to contribute to the Australian electricity supply system.
The programme will focus on the following priorities in order to achieve its objective: on-grid, megawatt-size storage for large wind energy systems on-grid, kilowatt-size storage for household photovoltaic electricity systems, and remote area power supplies and other renewable electricity applications.
2 STORAGE MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

2.1 Energy Storage Rebirth
In theory, the case for a storage component in the power industry would seem convincing. Without storage, electricity market participants (generation, transmission and distribution organisations) must develop and maintain an entire delivery network capable of meeting the highest peak of the year. With storage, the owners must build only what is necessary to carry a heavy, but normal load, resulting in a much higher utilisation of the existing equipment, and hence a higher return on their investments. Therefore, market coordinators should support the development of an effective storage component (Baxter, Sep 2002 and Gyuk, Nov 2004). This theory is borne out by experience. The gas industry in the United States has already undergone a period of deregulation where storage was divested from other transmission services. Throughout the 1990s gas storage grew to provide first 10 per cent and then 15 per cent of all end-user demand from a growing number of high deliverability saltdome facilities. The amount of gas in storage actually fell as a portion of total use, signifying the greater confidence storage provided. The US Department of Energy has estimated that gas storage is responsible for reducing the amount of added gas transmission capacity required by 50 per cent (Baxter, Sep 2002). In Australia, TRUenergys Iona gas storage facility at Port Campbell in Victoria provides retailers and wholesalers with the ability to shape supply contracts to meet peak requirements and provides a hedge against spikes in the spot market price (www.txu.com.au). This bodes well for the power market, since what happens in the gas market on a seasonal or monthly basis happens daily in the electricity business. Electricity storage is not a new concept. Utilities recognised the importance of the flexibility that energy storage provides in networks and subsequently many pumped hydro facilities were built in the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in a storage component of nearly three per cent of all USA summer capability by the early 1990s. During the same period, Australian utilities built a number of pumped hydro facilities for the same reasons. However, pressure from deregulation and environmental concerns caused both existing and future investment in major hydroelectric facilities to fall off here and overseas. Nonetheless, a new wave of interest by both government and private industry may soon boost the USA storage level (currently approximately 2.5 per cent of delivered energy) to one similar to European countries (~10%) or even Japan (~15%) (Gyuk, Nov 2004). Australias geography, topology and environmental concerns limit similar expansion of large-scale pumped hydro facilities here. But this does not mean that storage is not required to optimise the operation of local electricity networks, particularly because of our relatively sparse and long grids with ever-growing demand (e.g. North Queensland) or more recently growing renewable energy supply from large wind farms in relatively remote areas (e.g. South Australia).
2.2 Role for Energy Storage Systems

Unlike any other successful commodities market, the electricity market has little or no storage component. This is a major weakness that means that electricity must always be used precisely when it is produced. Based on this tenuous balance of supply and demand, its monetary value also changes continually with time over a day and across a season. Further, the industry must develop and maintain an entire delivery network capable of meeting the highest peak of the year (Baxter, July 2002). The most important features of energy storage systems are: low cost penalty on the stored energy capital and low operation and maintenance costs the cost penalty on energy is minimised by low capital cost, low operation and maintenance costs and high round trip efficiency. Storage must be cost-competitive with other technologies and strategies currently in use, most notably the strength of the electricity grid itself or the ease/quickness of start-up of a gas turbine or diesel generator, to deal with the challenges of intermittent renewable electricity generation unattended operation low occupational health and safety risks low, or nil, environmental hazards in use or disposal. In addition, in some applications additional needs are: plug and play simplicity of installation and relocation small footprint for systems. As energy storage systems are enabling technologies, their goal is to enhance and extend the operating capabilities of other assets on the grid (Baxter, July 2002). Costeffective energy storage will be a key enabling technology for the stable operation of a liberalised energy market for competitive energy pricing and for the growth of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and wave energy systems. Although electricity cannot be directly stored (at least cheaply), it can easily be stored in other forms and converted back to electricity when necessary. By decoupling the production and consumption of electricity, solutions to a wide range of energy supply needs can be offered (see Figure 1), provided that the capital cost, operating costs and reliability of the storage system are fully competitive with conventional systems.
Figure 1: Electricity storage spectrum
Source: Courtesy of Electricity Storage Association - www.electricitystorage.org
Energy storage systems can interact across the electricity value chain, as illustrated in Figure 2, in a broad range of applications as set out in Section 2.3. Figure 2: Storage in the electricity value chain
Source: Courtesy of Energy Storage Council - www.energystoragecouncil.org
Storage also increases the security of supply right across the value chain by providing a means for utilities and their customers to ride through disruptions to supply until rerouting of supply can be put in place. By supplying power when and where needed, energy storage can be considered to be on the brink of becoming the sixth dimension of the electric power market by integrating the existing segments and creating a more responsive market (Energy Storage Council, May 2002).
2.3 Applications of Storage in the Electricity Market

2.3.1 Broad Application Sets
Storage can improve the economic efficiency and utilisation of the entire system. By optimising the existing generation and transmission assets in the market, less capital could be needed to provide a higher level of service, while still giving energy sources such as renewables more opportunities for development, see Figure 3 (Baxter, July 2002). Figure 3: Broad application sets for electricity storage
By supplying power when and where needed, energy storage can create a far more responsive market (Energy Storage Council, May 2002). It will: reduce the need for additional transmission assets be the preferred supplier of ancillary services provide better integration of renewables into the electricity system
support more efficient use of existing assets improve the reliability of electricity supply increase the efficiency of existing power plant and transmission facilities, and reduce the investment required for new facilities.
2.3.2 Multifunctional Capabilities

Practically, all energy storage facilities are expected to perform a number of support functions. This is one of their greatest strengths. In addition to energy and power requirements, the duration of the discharge and the depth of discharge required for each segment of the value chain in Figure 2 assists in determining which storage technologys capability envelope fits the needs of the application (Energy Storage Council, May 2002). These multiple role requirements coincide with the area of the grid that they will support. Generation Energy storage facilities that supplement existing generation facilities are the largest of the energy storage technologies, with their primary focus being to provide energy to the grid in long duration discharges on a daily or hourly schedule. This role allows for increasing the value of the off-peak generating capability and increasing the utilization of these assets. Storage facilities can also provide contingency reserves for periods when the grid has a sudden shortfall of energy. If that shortfall is massive and causes a complete failure of the grid, storage facilities can assist in the re-energizing of the grid with its black-start capability. These facilities also provide wide-area support and regulation to the power grid. Transmission and Distribution Energy storage facilities designed to support transmission and distribution networks maintain the stability and reliability of the grid. These facilities are more concerned with the ability to quickly inject stabilizing power, not long-term energy, into the grid with a short discharge, but a faster reaction time. Storage facilities can play an integral part in enhancing the quality of a transmission and distribution system. Energy Service Although the desire to reduce the cost of power is very important to large consumers, the desire to prevent disruptions in their energy service from affecting their manufacturing processes is even stronger. Therefore, energy storage systems in this market are primarily designed to improve the use of power at a customers site rather than generate income. These facilities do not necessarily have the discharge endurance of some of the larger systems, but rather focus on response time and power deliverability. Energy storage facilities can be used in three primary roles in the retail energy sector: reducing energy costs through peak shaving; improving the quality of power; and providing increased reliability of service. The size of the facility is wholly dependent upon the customers demand. Generally it is designed for repeated, small discharges for power conditioning service with the ability to provide limited bridging power to essential equipment during an outage.
2.4 Renewable Electricity and Storage

2.4.1 Storage Applications with Intermittent Renewables
Future development of renewable energy technologies will continue the cost reduction that has already been evidenced in wind and photovoltaic power generation. Nonetheless, the widespread deployment of solar, wind and wave power in the future will face the fundamental difficulty that they are intermittent, requiring demand flexibility, backup power sources, and enough electricity storage for hours to days and perhaps a week. A recent supplement to the DOE-EPRI Handbook of Energy Storage for Transmission and Distribution Applications examined applications for energy storage to enhance wind generation (Mears, Nov 2004). Single-function applications that were identified were: Transmission Curtailment - mitigation of power delivery constraint imposed by insufficient transmission capacity Valued at the market electricity rates for the incremental wind generation that is delivered. This is a particular issue in Australia (currently and notably South Australia) where transmission lines are long and lack capacity for major additions of wind-generated electricity into them. Time-Shifting - firming and shaping of wind-generated energy by storing it during the off-peak interval (supplemented by power purchased from the grid when wind generation is inadequate) and discharged during the on-peak interval. Valued at the market rates for the time-shifted, shaped energy. Forecast Hedge - mitigation of errors (shortfalls) in wind energy bids into the market prior to required delivery, and thus reduction in volatility of spot prices and reduction in risk exposure of consumers to this volatility. Valued at the incremental value of wind energy delivered at market rates. Grid Frequency Support - supports grid frequency during sudden, large decreases in wind generation over a short discharge interval. Valued at the cost of alternative solutions. Fluctuation suppression - stabilises wind farm generation frequency by suppressing fluctuations (absorbing and discharging energy during short duration variations in output). Valued at the cost of alternative solutions. While this DOE-EPRI study was focused on wind, nonetheless these key applications for storage or renewable electricity are equally relevant to solar and wave power generation as other key, intermittent renewable fuels. These applications also can be combined to deliver multi-benefits, as the DOE-EPRI study discusses. In discussing storage for renewable electricity, the diversity of scale must also be accounted for. Wind, solar and wave-fuelled electricity can be scaled from micro to miniscale generators (i.e. 100s of watts up to a few hundred kilowatts) through to largescale generation farms at the 10s to 100s of megawatts scale. At the small scale,
these generators will invariably be connected on the customers side of the meter and thus operate in the retail electricity market. While at the larger scales they will connect into the suppliers side of the meter via the transmission and distribution networks and thus operate in the wholesale electricity market. Storage systems to support renewable electricity supply therefore are required to cover this very wide range of retail and wholesale applications, cost-effectively and reliably.
2.4.2 Enabling High Renewables Penetration

Cost-effective storage is an important and missing system component to enable a high penetration of renewable electricity into the market. However, it is not the panacea to this goal. Rather, as noted by GE Power (Miller et al, Feb 2005), a full suite of technologies is required (see Figure 4). Figure 4: Intermittency management and high penetration renewables
Source: Courtesy of Nicholas Miller, GE Energy - www.gepower.com
Generation smoothing is less of an issue in Australia due to the use of modern, largescale wind turbines and power conditioning innovations for wind and solar electricity generators. The Australian Governments complementary programs on wind energy forecasting capabilities and advanced electricity storage technologies recognise the deficiencies in these two areas that remain major barriers to increased penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources into local electricity markets.
2.4.3 The Achilles Heels of Storage

While individual storage technologies have particular limitations and particular benefits in targeted applications as discussed in the next chapter, all have two major achilles heels, particularly when considered in conjunction with renewable electricity installations. Firstly, the considerable capital cost of the storage system that includes the charging sub-system, the storage sub-system and the discharging sub-system that also must interface to the AC electrical grid storage must be cost-competitive with other technologies and strategies currently in use to provide frequency regulation, arbitrage, deferral, etc (Pearl Street, May 2004). Secondly, round-trip efficiency of a storage system is always less than 100 per cent and thus valuable electrons, particularly green electrons, are lost before they can earn revenue. Electricity is not usually stored per se (see next chapter). Energy storage technologies instead convert electricity to other energy forms, with a characteristic turnaround efficiency usually driven by the simplicity or complexity of conversion and reconversion between electricity and the stored energy form, for example: it can be 90-95 per cent efficient to convert electricity to kinetic energy and back again by speeding up or slowing down a spinning flywheel. batteries (electrochemical energy storage devices) can be relatively efficient (~70-80%) if charged and discharged at moderate rates. storing electricity by compressing and later re-expanding air is usually less efficient (~75%), since rapid compression heats up a gas, increasing its pressure and thus making further compression difficult. hydrogen storage of electricity has relatively low round-trip energy efficiency (~30-50%) from the combination of electrolyser efficiency and re-conversion technology back to electricity. Internal combustion motor-generator sub-systems are not as efficient as fuel cells, although the latter are not yet commercially available at cost-effective prices per kilowatt. converting electricity to high temperature heat, storing that heat and then reconverting it to electricity has a similarly low round-trip efficiency (~30-40%) (Pearl Street, May 2004). High temperature heat from a concentrating solar thermal system that is stored before conversion to electricity is quite different where the correct comparison is the change in overall solar energy to electricity conversion efficiency, comparing a system with or without storage. Overall solar energy to electric conversion efficiencies may be in the 20-40 per cent range, however the change when storage is added can be close to zero, giving a virtual storage efficiency of close to 100 per cent. it must be noted that capital cost and round-trip efficiency can be traded-off, at least to some extent. For example, a storage technology with low capital cost but low round-trip efficiency may well be competitive with a high cost, high round-trip efficiency technology. It is the levelised energy cost1 of the integrated system (renewable electricity plus storage) that matters from an overall competitiveness point-of-view.
Levelised Energy Cost (LEC) is the average break even value of a unit of energy output from a system when all costs including capital and operations and maintenance, are amortised over the lifetime of the system, using and appropriate discount rate.
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3 STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES
3.1 Forms of Energy Storage
Storage technologies for use in electricity systems can be classified by the form in which the storage occurs. A classification by type together with key examples is: Electrical energy storage - supercapacitors Electrochemical energy storage - conventional batteries such as lead-acid; nickel metal hydride; lithium ion, etc and flow-cell batteries such as zinc bromine and vanadium redox Kinetic energy storage - flywheels Potential energy storage - pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage Chemical energy storage - hydrogen systems Thermochemical energy storage* - ammonia dissociation-recombination and Methane dissociation-recombination Magnetic energy storage - superconducting magnetic energy systems Thermal energy storage - sensible heat systems such as steam or hot water accumulators; graphite; hot rocks; or concrete and latent heat systems such as phase change materials
*Note that there is overlap in such classifications with for example thermochemical energy storage being both a subset of chemical and thermal approaches and electrochemical being a subset of both electrical and chemical approaches.
These storage technologies are used across the spectrum of applications, as illustrated in Figure 5 and Figure 6 (Makansi, May 2003). Figure 5: Storage technologies and their broad applications
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Figure 6: Electricity storage

UPS Market
1-MW
10-MW
100-MW and above
Flywheels Batteries Capacitors Ultra-capacitors (combined with DG devices)
Large-scale batteries Lead-acid NAS Va Redox Reverse-flow fuel cells Regenesys Sub-surface CAES (underground pipe)
Pumped storage Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)
Research, early-stage development and commercial operations are taking place in a number of research institutions and commercial entities around Australia and the world. Their aim is to develop and deliver cost-effective, efficient and reliable storage systems for large-scale application.
3.2 The Different Storage Technologies

3.2.1 Electrical Energy Storage
Although all the technologies reviewed in this paper offer forms of electrical energy storage, the most direct and literal way of storing electrical energy is with a capacitor. In its simplest form, a capacitor consists of two metal plates separated by a nonconducting layer called a dielectric. When one plate is charged with electricity from a direct-current source, the other plate will have induced in it a charge of the opposite sign; that is, positive if the original charge is negative and negative if the charge is positive. The main problem presented by standard capacitors is size, if a large capacitor is required, then the area of the dielectric must be very large. This fact can make the use of large capacitors uneconomical and often cumbersome. This is particularly true in energy storage applications. To remedy this, a new type of capacitive device, the supercapacitor or electrochemical capacitor was developed. Electrochemical capacitors are often made with carbon or another high surface area material as the conductor with an aqueous or non-aqueous electrolyte. Since the surface area of activated carbons is very high, i.e. up to 2,000 m2 per gram, and the distance between the plates is very small (less than 1 nanometre), very large capacitances and stored energy are possible using supercapacitors. The energy storage capabilities of supercapacitors are substantially greater than that of conventional capacitors, by approximately two orders of magnitude. In addition, supercapacitors are capable of: charging substantially faster than conventional batteries; being recharged almost indefinitely compared to batteries that only have a relatively small number of recharges before needing replacement; and operating down to temperatures of -25 degrees celsius.
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3.2.2 Electrochemical Energy Storage

The oldest and most established way of storing electricity is in the form of chemical energy in batteries. A battery comprises of one or more electrochemical cells and each cell consists of a liquid, paste, or solid electrolyte together with a positive electrode and a negative electrode. During discharge, electrochemical reactions occur at the two electrodes generating a flow of electrons through an external circuit. The reactions are reversible, allowing the battery to be recharged by applying an external voltage across the electrodes. Battery systems range from mature and reliable technologies, such as lead acid, which have been proven and developed over many years, to various newer designs which are at different stages of development, including sodium sulphur and sodium nickel chloride. In recent years, new developments have been driven by the demands of consumer electronics, portable and transport applications, although there is increasing interest in the use of large scale batteries for utility energy storage applications. Electrochemical approaches that are either in use and/or potentially suitable for utility scale battery energy storage applications include lead acid, nickel cadmium, sodium sulphur, sodium nickel chloride and lithium ion. A summary of the performance characteristics of each of these battery systems is given in Table 1 (EA Technology, Oct 2004). Table 1: Performance characteristics of battery systems
Source: UK Department of Trade and Industry - www.dti.gov.uk
Electrochemical flow cell systems, also known as redox flow cells, convert electrical energy into chemical potential energy by means of a reversible electrochemical reaction between two liquid electrolyte solutions. In contrast with conventional batteries, redox flow cells store energy in the electrolyte solutions. Therefore, the power and energy ratings are independent, with the storage capacity determined by the quantity of electrolyte used and the power rating determined by the active area of the cell stack.
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A redox flow cell system is made up of a number of electrochemical cells. Each cell has two compartments, one for each electrolyte, physically separated by an ion-exchange membrane. The electrolytes are stored in two tanks and are pumped through the cell stack across a membrane where one form of the electrolyte is electrochemically oxidised and the other is electrochemically reduced. This creates a current that is collected by electrodes and made available to the external circuit. The reaction is reversible allowing the battery to be charged, discharged and recharged. A simplified schematic of a redox flow cell energy storage system is shown below. Figure 7: Schematic of a Redox Flow Cell Battery
At the present time there are three electrochemical principals of interest: vanadium redox, zinc bromine and polysulphide bromide (Regenesys2). A summary of the performance characteristics of each energy storage system is given in Table 2 (EA Technology, Oct 2004). Table 2: Performance characteristics of Redox Flow Cell Battery Systems
A recent innovation in electrochemical energy storage is a lead-acid battery that is electrochemically integrated with a supercapacitor. Using lead as one electrode and carbon as the other within the battery, these new hybrid devices offer significant life extension over conventional lead acid batteries by using the supercapacitor portion to manage high charge-discharge power flows during operation. They also will be manufactured using familiar manufacturing processes for lead-acid battery manufacture, thereby capitalising on long-established, low-cost manufacturing for these batteries.
Regenesys has recently been acquired by VRB Power, Inc.
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3.2.3 Kinetic Energy Storage

Kinetic energy storage systems operate on the basis of stored energy in a rotating mass which is converted from and to electrical energy via a motor/generator set. Such kinetic energy storage systems (or flywheel storage systems, as they are more commonly known) tend to fall into two discrete categories, namely conventional steel rotor systems or advanced composite machines. A kinetic energy storage system comprises the following essential component technologies: the kinetic energy store (flywheel) itself. Important design features include materials selection and fabrication, component geometry, rotor dynamics and speed. The overall objective is to achieve maximum storage of rotational kinetic energy within given constraints of volume envelope, mass, cost and safety. a containment system, together with its ancillary services, will also usually be required, in all but a very few instances. The primary function of the containment system in normal operation is to provide a high vacuum environment (10-3 to 10-5 torr) to minimize windage losses and to protect the rotor assembly from external disturbances. In a failure situation, the containment provides a secondary function, of absorbing the energy of the exploding rotor and containing the debris within a defined volume envelope. bearing assemblies are another of the essential sub-assemblies and ideally provide a very low loss support mechanism for the flywheel rotor, in order to reduce losses of kinetic energy over extended periods of operation. finally, a power conversion and control system must be provided, both to import power during charging and to accelerate the rotor up to speed and vice versa, during discharge. The power conversion system must cope with the varying speed of the rotor sub-assembly and be fully compatible with the external electrical interface. As noted, kinetic energy storage systems are (EA Technology, Oct 2004): either under development or available on a commercial basis from a number of commercial organisations. systems range from relatively conventional, low- speed steel rotor, series produced units through custom-built systems designed for specific end use applications to high speed units, employing state-of-the-art composite materials construction. already commercially available and under development to satisfy a range of market requirements. their emphasis is principally on high power/short duration applications (e.g. 100s of kW/tens of seconds), with their ability to withstand repeated cyclic loading within this operational regime.
3.2.4 Potential Energy Storage

Pumped-Hydro Storage The most widespread, large-scale electricity storage technology is pumped storage hydropower. A pumped storage plant uses two reservoirs; an upper storage basin providing the head to drive the hydropower turbines, and another to collect water back into the upper basin using surplus base-load electricity during off-peak hours. The stored energy is only utilized for electricity generation during daily peak-load. By definition, a pure pumped storage plant uses less than 5 per cent of inflow from upper watersheds, and is therefore an energy system storage component, not a renewable energy source.
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Using green electricity, for instance from surplus wind power, to pump water back to reservoirs during periods of low demand and using the additional storage volume for grid regulation and balancing stochastic output are interesting scenarios for a future sustainable energy system (Research Reports International, Oct 2003). As the share of renewable energy grows, such a system will be well suited to cope with their intermittency of output. The global pumped storage hydropower capacity is estimated (Research Reports International, Oct 2003) at 82,800 MW. Facilities exist in size up to 1,000 MW, and continue to be installed worldwide at a rate of up to 5,000 MW per year. Nonetheless, due to high construction costs, long construction times, the requirement of large amounts of land in the right type of geography and the associated environmental concerns with hydroelectric facilities, pumped hydro facilities face constraints in their deployment. Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) Compressed air energy storage is the only other commercially available technology (besides pumped-hydro) able to provide the very-large system energy storage deliverability (above 100MW in single unit sizes) to use for commodity storage or other large-scale storage. In a CAES plant, compressed air is used to drive the compressor of the gas turbine, which makes up 50-60 per cent of the total energy consumed by the gas turbine system. The most important part of the CAES plant is the storage facility for compressed air. Usually a man-made rock cavern, salt cavern, or porous rock, either created by waterbearing aquifers or as a result of oil and gas extraction, can be used. Aquifers in particular can be very attractive as storage media because the compressed air will displace water, setting up a constant pressure storage system. The pressure in the alternative systems will vary when adding or releasing air. There have only been a few CAES installations worldwide to date. The Iowa Stored Energy Plant in the USA (Haug, May 2005) is a project under development to integrate wind power with a CAES plant, as illustrated in Figure 8 that also demonstrates the basic operation of a CAES system. Figure 8: Basic operation of a compressed air energy storage system
Operation During Energy Storage or Compression Phase Wind Generation Used to Compress Air No Extra Grid Power Used
Local Wind Farm
50 MW
Power Flow
CAES Power Plant Electric Power Substation at CAES Power Plant
0 MW
50 MW
Air Flow
Underground Aquifer Compressed Air Storage
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Local Wind Farm
Operation During Energy Storage or Compression Phase Wind Generation Used to Compress Air And Supplemental Off-Peak Grid Power Also Used
50 MW
25 MW
75 MW
Air Flow

Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities - May 2005
TAW 7/18/2002
Local Wind Farm
Operation During Energy Generation Phase CAES Power Plant Generates Power to Supplement and Firm Up Wind Farm Output
20 MW
P Wind
100 MW 80 MW
Air Flow
P CAES
Source: Courtesy of Bob Haug, Executive Director Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities - www.iamu.org
However, as with pumped storage capacity, the development of large-scale CAES is limited by the availability of suitable sites. As a result, current research is focused on the development of systems with man-made storage tanks, so-called small CAES.
3.2.5 Chemical Energy Storage

Liquid fuels, petroleum or biomass based, are a form of chemical energy that is easily converted to electricity through motor-generator sets (e.g. diesel generators) or turbinegenerator sets. When combined with renewable electricity generators (e.g. a winddiesel system as developed and deployed in a few installations in Australia), the storage is effectively the tank of fuel. Such renewable and conventional combination generation systems are feasible, and conceivably could be scaled to large sizes. However, in these cases the renewable generators are little more than fuel-savers for the conventional generators because of the formers low capacity contribution and intermittent nature. These liquid fuel, conventional generator based systems are not truly storage systems for intermittent renewables, although clearly they have a role to play in generation smoothing and/or grid support.
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It is of course technically feasible to build such a hybrid system and use biodiesel or some other renewable biofuel as the provider of virtual electricity storage so that the combined system was truly a renewable energy generator with storage. Hydrogen-based energy storage systems are receiving increasing attention at the present time, particularly in relation to their integration with renewable power sources. Their essential elements comprise an electrolyser unit (to convert the renewable electrical energy input into hydrogen by splitting water), the hydrogen storage system itself (e.g. compressed hydrogen; metal hydrides; nano-material storage) and a generator system (to convert the stored chemical energy in the hydrogen back to electrical energy). In addition, there are a range of approaches to producing hydrogen directly from thermochemical or photochemical processes using concentrated solar energy. These are however all at an earlier stage of development than the commercially available electrolysis approach. There is a strong technical preference for the generator element to be a fuel cell system, in order to capitalise on its high energy conversion efficiency, although this does not preclude the use of hydrogen-burning internal combustion engines. Figure 9 provides a diagrammatic representation of such a system, including a power conditioning system (PCS) to interface to electrical networks. Figure 9: Diagrammatic representation of hydrogen energy storage system
Hydrogen based energy storage systems are claimed to possess a number of inherent advantages, including: the high energy density of the hydrogen itself; the ability to implement systems over a full range of sizes, from kW scale to multiMW capacity; system charge rate, discharge rate and storage capacity are independent variables; modular construction aspect, with ability to add further modules and/or re-configure systems;
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potential to provide surplus hydrogen off-gas supplies for road transport applications; and environmentally benign operating characteristics.
Notwithstanding these claimed advantages, hydrogen-based storage is at a major cost disadvantage at the present time and also suffers from a relatively low round-trip efficiency (in the range of 30-50 per cent). This latter aspect may, however, not be a totally limiting aspect, e.g. in a system providing significant added-value to an essentially low cost input resource. Examples of hydrogen energy storage schemes either, implemented, committed or proposed include the HARI project in Leicestershire, the PURE project on the Scottish island of Unst, the FIRST project in Madrid and the Hunterston Hydrogen Project in Scotland. The two former examples represent small scale systems (up to 10 kW of generation) respectively already implemented and committed. The FIRST project represents an example of an innovative, hydrogen-based remote telecoms power supply solution, with the Hunterston Hydrogen Project presently being actively promoted as a large scale system (tens of MW capacity) for extracting added value from wind farm outputs by firming up their capacity. Electrochemical storage, discussed in 3.2.2 and thermochemical energy storage discussed in 3.2.6, are also forms of chemical energy storage.
3.2.6 Thermochemical Energy Storage

Solar thermochemical processes convert radiant energy into chemical energy, with the absorbed, concentrated, solar radiation driving an endothermic chemical reaction. (Steinfeld et al, 2001) Concentrated solar radiation is used as the energy source for high temperature process heat to drive chemical reactions towards the production of storable and transportable fuels. Figure 10 and Figure 11 illustrate the basic idea. Figure 10: Solar energy conversion into solar fuels
Source: Courtesy of Prof. Aldo Steinfeld, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland - www.pre.ethz.ch
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High temperature solar process heat is used for driving an endothermic, reversible reaction in a solar chemical reactor. The products can be stored indefinitely and also transported over long distances to the customer site where the energy is needed. At that site, the exothermic reverse reaction is effected, yielding process heat in an amount equal to the stored solar energy. Figure 11: Solar chemical heat pipe for storage and transport of solar energy
Source: Courtesy of Prof. Aldo Steinfeld, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland - www.pre.ethz.ch
This high-temperature heat may be applied for example to generate electricity using a Rankine cycle. The chemical products for the reverse reaction are the original chemicals; they are returned to the solar reactor and the process is repeated. Two reversible reactions that have been extensively investigated for application in chemical heat pipes are the methane (CH4) reforming-methanation and the ammonia (NH3) dissociation-synthesis. The methane-based process is an example of a hybrid solar/fossil process. The products (in this case syngas) are fuels whose quality has been upgraded by solar energy, i.e. the calorific value is increased above that of the fossil fuel by solar energy input equal to the enthalpy change of the reaction. Increased energy content means extended fuel life and reduced pollution of the environment. Therefore, these fuels are cleaner fuels. The mix of solar and fossil energies creates a link between current fossil-fuel-based technologies and future solar chemical technologies. Other reactions have also been considered for this application. In principle the energy input to a thermochemical process could be provided with electricity, however re-conversion of recovered heat to electricity via a Steam Rankine cycle or other heat engine process would result in a relatively low round trip efficiency. The major competitive advantages of the solar thermochemical approach are that, as noted in 2.4.3, the change in solar to electric conversion efficiency of a solar energy system with and without storage can be close to zero. The storage becomes an integrated part of the system and replaces components that would have some energy losses anyway. The result is a virtual electricity storage system of close to 100 per cent virtual storage efficiency. Furthermore the substitution of components plus the ability to downsize the heat engine to run at a higher capacity factor, means that it is conceivable that the cost increment can also be very small.
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3.2.7 Magnetic Energy Storage

A Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) system is a device for storing and very rapidly discharging large quantities of electrical energy. In low temperature superconducting materials, electric currents encounter almost no resistance. The SMES systems store energy in the magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a coil of superconducting material that has been cryogenically cooled. These systems have been in use for several years to solve voltage stability and power quality problems for large industrial customers. A Distributed SMES (D-SMES) system represents an innovative new application of proven SMES technology, enabling utilities to improve system-level reliability and transfer capacity. D-SMES provides cost-effective grid stabilization for entire electric utility systems. D-SMES systems are employed by electric utilities and are connected to their grids at substations. D-SMES systems increase transfer capacity and protect utility grids from the destabilizing effects of short-term events such as voltage dips caused by lightning strikes and downed poles, sudden changes in customer demand levels and switching operations. In many cases, D-SMES is a cost-effective way to reinforce a transmission grid without the costly and environmentally intrusive construction of new lines. Rather than protecting one individual customer, a D-SMES system consists of a number of SMES units placed at strategically selected locations on the utility system. By improving the stability of the entire transmission grid, a D-SMES system can cost-effectively increase system capacity and improve the reliability and quality of electric service to thousands of customers simultaneously.
3.2.8 Thermal Energy Storage

Thermal energy storage systems use material that can be kept at high temperatures in insulated containments. Heat recovered can then be applied for electricity generation using steam Rankine cycle or other heat engine cycles. Energy input can, in principle, be provided by electrical resistance heating but the overall round trip efficiency will be low. However, as with thermochemical energy storage, thermal systems have considerable advantages when integrated with Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies (ie parabolic troughs or dishes, central receiver/heliostat systems and Linear Fresnel systems). Integration of thermal storage for several full load hours, together with new storage materials and advanced charging/discharging concepts, would allow for increased solar thermal electricity production without changing the power block size (ECOSTAR, Nov 2004). Provided that the storage is sufficiently inexpensive, this would lower the levelised energy cost, and additionally increase the dispatchability of the electricity generation. The kind of storage system used for solar energy storage depends on the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology, the heat transfer medium used and the required temperature of operation. In general, high-temperature thermal storage development will need several scale-up steps over an extended development time before market acceptance will be achieved. Storage systems for thermal energy storage need to: be efficient in terms of energy loss and temperature drops have low cost have a long service life have low parasitic power requirements.
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The development of storage systems for high pressure steam and pressurized, high temperature air, is especially challenging. If or when developed, such storage systems would lead to a significant drop in CSP electricity costs. The high-temperature thermal storage technologies utilised or under development now are (ECOSTAR, Nov 2004): Molten salt storage and Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTILs) State of the art is the 2-tank molten salt storage tested in the Solar Two Central Receiver Solar Power Plant demonstration project in California, combined with using molten salt as heat transfer fluid. The use of new, so called Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTILs) has recently been proposed. RTILs are organic salts with negligible vapour pressure in the relevant temperature range and a melting temperature below 25C. Room temperature ionic liquids are new materials that have the potential to be stored at temperatures of many 100s of degrees without decomposing. It is not yet clear whether they are stable up to the temperature level required for CSP and also whether they may be produced at reasonable costs. Concrete Storage The concept of using concrete or castable ceramics to store energy at high temperatures for parabolic trough power plants with synthetic oil as the heat transfer fluid (HTF) has been investigated in European projects. The implementation of a concrete storage system is claimed (ECOSTAR, Nov 2004) to be able to be realised within less than 5 years. Phase Change Materials (PCM) Phase change materials are materials selected to have a phase change (usually solid to liquid) at a temperature matching the thermal input source. The high latent heat in a phase change offers the potential for higher energy storage densities than storage of non phase change high temperature materials. Because a solid/liquid phase change is involved, a heat transfer fluid is needed to move heat from source to PCM. At present, two principle approaches are being investigated: o encapsulation of small amounts of PCM o embedding of PCM in a matrix made of another solid material with high heat conduction. The first measure is based on the reduction of distances inside the PCM and the second one uses the enhancement of heat conduction by other materials (e.g. graphite). Storages based on PCM are in an early stage of development but the cost target is to stay below A$34/kWh based on the thermal capacity. Although the uncertainties and risks of the PCM storage technology are in a medium range, the technology time required for full development and commercial implementation is likely to be more than 10 years (ECOSTAR, Nov 2004). Storage for air receivers using solid materials Storage types using solid material for sensible heat are normally used together with volumetric atmospheric or pressurized air systems. The heat has to be transferred to another medium, which may be any kind of solid with high density and heat capacity. Another innovation is to develop for pressurised closed-air receivers a storage container that has to be pressure resistant up to about 16-20 bar depending on the gas turbine pressure ratio.
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For both cases the time for development and implementation is considered to be between 5 to 10 years and the risks and uncertainties are in the medium range (ECOSTAR, Nov 2004).
Storage for saturated water/steam The steam drum, which is a common part in many steam generators, is often used to provide process heat storage in industry. The main problem is the size of the steam vessel for larger storage capacity and the degradation of steam quality during discharging. However, this storage type is ideal as buffer storage for short time periods of several minutes, to compensate shading of the solar field by fast moving small clouds. Using appropriate encapsulated PCM inside the storage could enhance the storage capacity because the latent heat content can be used to slow down the temperature and pressure decrease and enable smaller storage vessels for the same thermal capacity. Recently, underground thermal energy storage has been proposed again as a lowcost solution to high-temperature, low-loss thermal storage for CSP systems (Mills et al, Nov 2004). It involves storage of water under pressure in deep metal lined caverns where the pressure is contained by the surrounding rock and the overburden weight. High-purity graphite. This readily available material has the storage capacity as the temperature of temperatures of solar thermal systems unless the graphite storage blocks could focus of a concentrating solar collector.
attractive property of increasing its heat storage rises. However, the relatively low are not optimal for this storage medium be positioned at the very high temperature
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4 AUSTRALIAN ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES

4.1 A Summary Listing
In a global sense, Australia has been relatively prolific in the development of many of the energy storage technologies discussed in the previous chapter. The major developers and their technologies include: CSIRO lead-acid batteries - CSIRO has a long history of development and testing of leadacid batteries to extend their life and applications for a wide range of applications (including renewable electricity storage). Many of these developments have been commercialised by Australian and overseas companies. supercapacitors - 1st generation supercapacitor technology developed by CSIRO has been commercialised by CapXX Pty Ltd under a license arrangement first established in 1994. CSIRO is continuing with next-generation supercapacitor technology development for lower cost and higher storage capability. ultra battery - the integration of a supercapacitor directly into the lead-acid battery electrode-electrolyte structure brings the ultra-battery life close to that of its competitive nickel-metal hydride technology, but with greatly reduced cost. While development is still continuing at CSIRO, initial demonstration and commercialisation efforts are focusing on its application in hybrid electric vehicles where the superior fast charge, fast discharge capability of the supercapacitor component protects and considerably lengthens the life of the conventional leadacid battery components. lithium batteries - still at the research and development phase, CSIRO is seeking to achieve lower-cost and safer lithium batteries for a range of applications where the high energy-density of these batteries is an advantage. thermochemical - energy storage of solar energy using the methane (CH4) reforming reaction to provide a higher calorific-value and cleaner gaseous fuel (syngas). CSIRO successfully completed a proof-of-concept demonstration system for this technology, and is scaling it up now in its Newcastle laboratories for a complete system demonstration that can be operated over long periods. University of NSW Vanadium Redox Battery - first-generation flow-cell battery technology. Based on vanadium sulphate electrolytes, this technology has been commercialised by Sumitomo in Japan, VRB Power in North America and Pinnacle in Australia, albeit that there are to date only a limited number of commercial applications. second-generation vanadium bromide redox technology - based on vanadium bromide and chloride electrolytes, and using new intellectual property not dependent on the 1st generation technology, this higher power density, potentially lower cost vanadium battery technology is now under development by Magnam Technologies Pty Ltd (and its subsidiary V-Fuel Pty Ltd) in Sydney. Cavern storage of high-temperature heat for CSTP systems - a form of sensible heat storage, the cavern storage concept is to store high pressure, high temperature water from a concentrating solar thermal system (or other means of generating the high pressure, high temperature water) in underground storage caverns, to later be released through a conventional steam generation system for electricity. This technology is undergoing further design and development by Solar Heat and Power Pty Ltd.
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Australian National University thermochemical - energy storage of solar energy (NH3) dissociation-recombination reaction. ANU technology through small-scale proof-of-concept dissociation and recombination sub-systems. The been licensed to Wizard Power Pty Ltd.
using the reversible ammonia researchers have taken this demonstration for both the ANU Technology has recently
ZBB Technologies Ltd zinc-bromine flow-cell battery - following a long development program with Murdoch University, ZBB Technologies Ltd is commercialising this technology with initial manufacture established in North America and early sales now underway. Lloyd Energy Systems Pty Ltd graphite high temperature sensible heat storage system research and development phase has led to a proof-of-concept demonstration project on King Island. Hydrogen generation, storage and use is being undertaken in smaller-scale research and development programs in a number of Australian research organisations (e.g. CSIRO, University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, Monash University, etc).
4.2 Position on the RDD&C Continuum

A map of the Commercialisation of Technology Innovation for the sustainable energy sector is shown in Figure 12 (Australian Greenhouse Office, Dec 2002), that builds on an innovation generic model that was developed by the Australian Governments Department of Industry Tourism and Resources. The technologies listed in Section 4.1 are considered to be at the points on this innovation continuum as set out below, with the recognition that this representation is designed for a technology-based start-up company model and does not necessarily serve well as a licensing model approach to technology commercialisation, which is often the approach in Australian research institutions. Figure 12: Stages of commercialisation of technology innovation
Higher attrition rates of ideas early in the process Transition from scientific focus to business structure Corporate presence established Corporate consolidation Corporate development and diversification Parenting new initiatives
Invention
Research
Ideas and concepts explored
Incubation
Pre-seed
Product concept proven
Commercialisation
Seed
Business concept developed. Prototypes developed. Investment ready.
Expansion
Stability
Market developed. Alliances forming.
Diversification
Mezzanine
Business entity consolidated. Public investment ready.
Development
Theories and concepts developed
Early Stage Start up Early Development

Business entity established. Production capability established. Management team established. Production in place.
Later Stage Growth

Product refinement. Market growth. Product licencing & export interest.
Mature Company
Initial Public Offer
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Improvements to lead-acid batteries to extend their life and applications Fully commercialised through various partnerships and alliances. Supercapacitors First generation commercialised through CapXX, itself in the expansion-growth phase. Next generation still in the invention-development and incubation phases. Ultra battery (integrated lead-acid/supercapacitor) hybrid technology At the commercialisation-seed phase, with technology proof-of-concept completed CSIRO has commenced commercialisation through licensing to major companies that will take it through the commercialisation and expansion phases. Lithium batteries. At the Invention-Development phase leading to technology proof-of-concept. Methane (CH4) solar reforming reaction to provide syngas. At the incubation - pre-seed or perhaps commercialisation-seed phase, with technology proof-of-concept completed and now requiring scale-up to application demonstration level with a leading-edge customer prior to commercialisation. First-generation vanadium redox flow-cell battery technology Between the commercialisation-early development through to expansion-stability phases. Second-generation vanadium redox flow-cell battery technology. At the invention-development phase requiring product proof of concept and prototypes to be achieved. Cavern storage of high-temperature heat for CSTP systems. At the invention-development stage. Reversible ammonia (NH3) solar disassociation-recombination. At the incubation pre-seed stage, with technology proof-of-concept completed. Zinc-bromine flow-cell battery technology. Between the commercialisation-early development through to expansion-stability phases. Graphite sensible heat storage At the incubation pre-seed stage, with a product demonstration trial underway. Hydrogen generation and storage Hydrogen is commercially generated and available from natural gas reforming, as a by-product of petroleum refining operations and from a few large-scale electrolyser installations. These conventional hydrogen generation technologies are full-proven and available. The fossil-fuel based hydrogen technologies are the lowest cost today, but of course are not renewable. Further, the storage technologies for hydrogen are expensive and/or have low energy density, making them unsuitable for many applications and particularly transport applications. The current focus of world-wide research and development efforts in hydrogen therefore are focused on: o low-cost and/or renewable technologies for hydrogen generation; and o low-cost, high energy density storage technologies for hydrogen. Australian researchers are participating in this world-wide research and development effort, but generically all these new efforts remain at the invention-research or invention-development stages only. Technology proof-of-concept, if it has occurred, typically has been at small scale to date.
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5
5.1
THE CHALLENGES
The Cost Challenge
Storage technologies for short-time applications principally related to power quality/reliability enhancement are economic today based either on overcoming losses in business outputs (particularly manufacturing) or deferring major capital outlays to strengthen transmission and/or distribution systems. However, long-term energy storage that shifts large amounts of energy in time for applications such as energy arbitrage, peak-overloaded transmission/distribution upgrade deferral or overcoming intermittency of generation from renewable energy sources faces a difficult cost challenge. The cost of some of the major technologies is compared in Table 3 (Research Reports International, Oct 2003). Table 3: Cost and performance of selected major electricity storage technologies
Source: Courtesy of Research Reports International - www.researchreportsintl.com
Comparing technologies based on installed cost alone does not take into account differences in variable costs or the amount of energy produced by the different technologies. Therefore, a levelised annual cost should be used instead. The levelised annual cost of energy storage technologies can be calculated by adding up the amortised installed cost of the system, the operating and maintenance cost, fuel cost, and replacement costs. This figure can then be divided by the hours of operation per year. These levelised costs are compared in Figure 13 (Research Reports International, Oct 2003).
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Figure 13: Levelised cost of major electricity storage technologies
Source: Courtesy of Research Reports International - www.researchreportsintl.com
Another comparison of the cost of various energy storage technologies is given in Figure 14. Figure 14: Capital cost of major electricity storage technologies
Source: Courtesy of Electricity Storage Association - www.electricitystorage.org
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These comparisons do not include the thermochemical and thermal options, which as noted previously have potentially very low incremental costs when incorporated as part of an integrated CSP Solar Thermal Electric system. Overall, despite the elegance and attractiveness of long-term (hours) energy storage to a range of applications in electricity supply, there have been relatively few deployments to date of technologies other than pumped hydro.
5.2 The Competition

Electric power providers and their customers clearly have an arsenal of technologies at their disposal to serve these applications. To supplement or replace traditional and emerging technology options, energy storage technologies will have to offer superior performance and lower cost than the more traditional technologies. Technology options may have to supplement non-technology options, such as spot purchases, for power providers and their customers to choose them in a competitive electric power industry. Competitors to all electricity storage systems, that is those that take different forms and functions but share the same overarching objective, are briefly described in Table 4 (SANDIA, 2002). Table 4: Conventional competitors to electricity storage systems
Source: Courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories - www.prod.sandia.gov
5.3 Porter's Analysis of the Storage Market (Porter, 1980)

5.3.1 Rivalry among Competitors
With the large potential market for electricity storage products and services, the rivalry among competitors is considered to be low but will emerge and strengthen over time. At this point in the development of the industry and the suppliers to it, such rivalry is not yet a key feature of the market because (apart from pumped hydro and lead-acid batteries) the new technologies are only just entering commercialisation.
29
5.3.2 Barriers to Entry to the Market

Electricity is a difficult commodity to store directly, only superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) and super capacitors are able to do so and they currently (and likely for the foreseeable future) compete only in the power quality segment of the storage market. However, electricity can be converted to a number of other useful forms of energy for later reconversion to electricity. Each form of electricity storage requires significant research and development skills, and considerable financial resources to undertake that effort and the more costly commercialisation phase. Barriers to market entry are considered high for those companies who do not have the required financial resources and/or intellectual property (or secure access to it) that will protect their competitive position.
5.3.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

A storage system contains a number of key sub-systems: an input subsystem to convert the incoming energy (electricity or solar radiation) into a storable form and deliver it to the storage subsystem the storage subsystem an output subsystem to extract the stored energy and convert it to a usable form (usually electricity) the control subsystem that manages the overall energy flows and monitors operation of the total system. In nearly all cases, a single proponent of a storage technology will only control one or a small number of any of the component technologies within any of these subsystems. While that control may be one of the golden bolt components without which the overall storage system is inoperative, nonetheless there are many components in these subsystems that a system integrator must bring together to provide a storage solution to its customers. With the growing entry to market of new storage technologies and their potential application to diverse and overlapping markets, the bargaining power of suppliers is considered quite limited.
5.3.4 Substitute Products

It is the traditional means of delivering the services that energy storage could provide, however inelegantly, that provide the greatest threat to rapid market penetration for large-scale energy storage technologies. This is because they are well-known by, and well-established in, the operations and infrastructure of, electricity utilities. They provide the benchmarks for capital cost, operation and maintenance cost, quality and reliability that storage systems must compete against.
5.3.5 Bargaining Power of Customers

The bargaining power of customers (i.e. utilities) in the electricity equipment market is high. They are price sensitive because the industry is very capital-intensive, and they are used to multiple suppliers competing for their business, right across their infrastructure needs. They typically have multiple product solutions to any problem or opportunity they face.
30
For energy storage to successfully compete, it will need to be priced competitively to the lowest cost alternate solution in each application and/or offer superior features that utility buyers cannot otherwise obtain.
5.4 Key Success Factors for Electricity Storage Systems

A new product has to offer customers exceptional utility at an attractive price, it must overcome adoption hurdles and the supplying company must be able to deliver it at a tidy profit (Kim et al, Sep 2000). Utility and Price The most important features of energy storage systems to cover customer needs, be they in Australia or elsewhere, are: low cost penalty on the stored energy capital and low operation and maintenance costs o the cost penalty on energy is minimised by low capital cost, low operation & maintenance costs and high round trip efficiency. o storage must be cost-competitive with other technologies and strategies currently in use, most notably the strength of the electricity grid itself or the ease/quickness of start-up of a gas turbine or diesel generator to deal with the challenges of intermittent renewable electricity generation unattended operation low occupational health and safety risks low, or nil, environmental hazards in use or disposal. In addition, in some applications additional needs are: plug and play simplicity of installation and relocation small footprint for systems. Adoption Hurdles Storage is considered by its advocates to be on the brink of becoming the sixth dimension of the electric power market by integrating the existing segments and creating a more responsive market (Baxter, July 2002). Nonetheless, there are some long-held negative biases of the utility sector, including the Australian utility sector, towards energy storage due to: storage technology developers having a history of overpromising and underdelivering on their new and promising technologies, resulting in a wait and see until its been proven elsewhere attitude on the part of potential customers; utilities having a relatively, but not completely, poor experience of established storage technologies such as lead-acid batteries; and utility network planners typically not being familiar with new storage technologies (because of their relative lack of commercial availability), and therefore continue with solutions to network problems even when sub-optimal. As with all new technologies, market entry therefore will require the active cooperation of leading-edge customers to enable proving of the storage products in real applications and to later act as reference sites.3
A cogent example of the positive effect of a leading-edge customer in Australia that is pulling the development of a new, renewable energy technology is Macquarie Generations financial and moral
31
The developer of a new storage technology must therefore ensure that its first application demonstrations with leading-edge customers are technically successful and prove the economics of the systems in those applications and ensure reliable supply channels are in place for market growth. This is equally true in Australia as anywhere else in the world. The Australian renewable electricity market is growing under the support of the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target and targeted market-support programs such as the Renewable Remote Power Generation Programme. Cost-effective storage technologies that enhance renewable energy deployment, whether those storage technologies were invented in Australia or elsewhere, will significantly assist renewable energy market growth in Australia and globally. However, it must be borne in mind that storage is but one element in a suite of tools that will enable holistic solutions for high penetration of renewable electricity systems into the market. Storage is complemented, and indeed will be preceded, by techniques such as better resource forecasting, demand management and innovative financing solutions to overcome the high capital cost barrier to entry for storage sub-systems and renewable electricity systems.
support of Solar Heat and Powers linear Fresnel concentrating solar thermal system at Liddell power station in NSW.
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References
Australian Greenhouse Office, Commonwealth and State Government Support to Sustainable Energy in Australia - An Overview, December 2002. Baxter, Richard, Energy storage: enabling a future for renewables? Renewable Energy World, July-August 2002. Baxter, Richard, Energy Storage in Todays Power Market, Commodities Now, September 2002. Berry, Gene, Present and Future Electricity Storage for Intermittent Renewables, Workshop Proceedings, The10-50 Solution: Technologies and Policies for a LowCarbon Future, The Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the National Commission on Energy Policy, March 25-26, 2004. EA Technology for the UK Department of Trade and Industry, Review of Electrical Energy Storage Technologies and Systems and of their Potential in the UK, 2004. ECOSTAR: European Concentrated Solar Thermal Road-Mapping, Deliverable No. 7, Roadmap Document, November 2004. Energy Storage Council, Energy Storage: The Missing Link in the Electricity Value Chain, Energy Storage Council White Paper, May 2002. Gyuk, Imre, Energy Storage and the Cost of Darkness, Annual Peer Review, DOE Energy Storage Systems Research, 10-11 November 2004, Washington, DC. Haug Bob, The Iowa Stored Energy Plant: Project Review and Update, Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities, May 2005. Kim, W. Chan and Rene Mauborgne, Knowing a Winning Business Idea When You See One, Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct 2000. Makansi, Jason, Energy Storage & Renewables: Perfect Together, Power-Gen 2003. Mears, Dan, EPRI-DOE Storage Handbook Storage for Wind Resources, Annual Peer Review, DOE Energy Storage Systems Research, 10-11 November 2004, Washington, DC. Miller, Nicholas and James Lyons, Intermittency Management and High Penetration Renewables, California Energy Commissions 2005 Energy Report Committee Workshop on Transmission Renewables Operational Integration Issues, February 3, 2005. Mills, David and Peter le Livre, Competitive Solar Electricity, ANZSES Conference, Perth, November 2004. Pearl Street, Energy Storage: The Value is Clear But Who Will Pay? Energy Storage Brief, May 2004. Porter, Michael E, Competitive Strategy, Free Press 1980. Research Reports International, Energy Storage Technologies For Electric Power Applications, 2nd Edition, October 2004. SANDIA Report 2002-1314 - Energy Storage Opportunities Analysis Phase II Final Report, A Study for the DOE Energy Storage Systems Program, printed in May 2002, by Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, by Butler, Paul Charles, Miller, Jennifer L Energetics Inc., Washington, DC, Taylor, Paula A. Energetics Inc., Washington, Steinfeld, Aldo and Robert Palumbo, Solar Thermochemical Process Technology, Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology, Vol. 15, pp237-256, 2001.
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advanced electricity storage technologies programme

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

ISBN: 1 921120 37 1 IMPORTANT NOTICE PLEASE READ

2.4 RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY AND STORAGE .............................................................................. 8

3 STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES ....................................................................................11

4 AUSTRALIAN ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES ............................................24

5.4 KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ELECTRICITY STORAGE SYSTEMS........................................... 31

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

2 STORAGE MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

2.2 Role for Energy Storage Systems

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

Figure 1: Electricity storage spectrum

Source: Courtesy of Electricity Storage Association - www.electricitystorage.org

Source: Courtesy of Energy Storage Council - www.energystoragecouncil.org

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

2.3 Applications of Storage in the Electricity Market

Source: Courtesy of Energy Storage Council - www.energystoragecouncil.org

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

2.3.2 Multifunctional Capabilities

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

2.4 Renewable Electricity and Storage

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

2.4.2 Enabling High Renewables Penetration

Source: Courtesy of Nicholas Miller, GE Energy - www.gepower.com

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

2.4.3 The Achilles Heels of Storage

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

Source: Courtesy of Energy Storage Council - www.energystoragecouncil.org

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

Figure 6: Electricity storage

100-MW and above

Flywheels Batteries Capacitors Ultra-capacitors (combined with DG devices)

Pumped storage Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)

Source: Courtesy of Energy Storage Council - www.energystoragecouncil.org

3.2 The Different Storage Technologies

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

3.2.2 Electrochemical Energy Storage

Source: UK Department of Trade and Industry - www.dti.gov.uk

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

Source: UK Department of Trade and Industry - www.dti.gov.uk

Source: UK Department of Trade and Industry - www.dti.gov.uk

Regenesys has recently been acquired by VRB Power, Inc.

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

3.2.3 Kinetic Energy Storage

3.2.4 Potential Energy Storage

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper

Local Wind Farm

CAES Power Plant Electric Power Substation at CAES Power Plant

Underground Aquifer Compressed Air Storage

Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005

Energy Storage Technologies: a review paper