Open Access
Table 1
Overview on status of development and application of storage technologies.
| Storage technology | Status of development and application |
|---|---|
| Batteries | Batteries are one of the most widely used electrical energy storage technologies in industry and daily life. Batteries that are evaluated in this paper include lead-acid, nickel (NiCd and NiMH), sodium sulphur (NaS), sodium nickel chloride (NaNiCl or ZEBRA) and lithium ion (Li-ion). While lead-acid is a popular storage choice for power quality, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and some spinning reserve applications, it is limited in use for energy management. Li-ion battery is applied widely in the small portable devices market, as well as electric vehicles, furthermore the Tesla Powerwall has been introduced for households. NiCd battery can be found in power tools, portable devices, emergency lighting, UPS, telecoms, and generator starting, while NiMH has a wealth of applications from portable products to electric vehicles and potential industrial standby applications, such as UPS devices. NaS battery has been economically used in combined power quality and peak shaving applications. With its technology being similar to NaS battery, NaNiCl is mostly applied in electric vehicles demonstrations, for instance, Rolls Royce has used NaNiCl to replace lead-acid in surface ships applications [1,2]. |
| Flow batteries | A flow battery is a form of a battery in which the electrolyte contains one or more dissolved electroactive species flowing through a power cell or reactor. There are three different electrolytes currently utilized in design of flow batteries: vanadium redox battery (VRB), zinc bromine battery (ZnBr battery), polysulphide bromide battery (PSB). VRB is suitable for a wide range of energy storage applications for electricity utilities and industrial end-users, such as enhanced power quality, UPS, peak shaving, increased security of supply and integration with renewable energy systems. ZnBr battery was developed by Exxon in the early 1970s, and several kWhs ZnBr batteries have been constructed and tested for the past decades; 50 kWh modules for renewable energy application can be currently found in the market. On the other hand, PSB is being verified in the laboratory, as well as demonstrated at multi kW scale in the UK [1,6,8]. |
| Hydrogen fuel cell and metal air battery | A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device [7]. A hydrogen cell uses hydrogen as fuel and oxygen as oxidant. Hydrogen fuel cells can be implemented in systems scaling from kW scale to multi-MW capacity. Other fuels include hydrocarbons, alcohols and metal. Other oxidants can be air, chlorine and chlorine dioxide [1,18]. |
| Metal-air battery can be considered as a special type of fuel cell which utilizes metal as the fuel and air as the oxidant. It is the most compact and potentially the least expensive batteries, as well as environmentally benign. Although many manufacturers offer refuel units (in which the consumed metal is mechanically replaced and processed separately), few developers offer an electrically rechargeable battery [1,2,4]. | |
| SCES | Supercapacitors energy storage (SCES) can have both the characteristics of traditional capacitors and electrochemical batteries. SCES is suitable for short-term storage applications; typical applications in power quality consist of pulse power, hold-up/bridging power to equipment, solenoid and valve actuation in factories, UPS devices. Research and development of SCES has been very active in recent years. The integration of a short-term electrical energy storage device in the form of a supercapacitor in an induction generator has been studied in order to smooth the fast wind-induced power variations [2,8,10]. |
| SMES | Super-conducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) is suitable for short-term storage in power and energy system applications and it is expected to have an important role in the increased use of intermittent renewable energy [1,2,8]. Recently, numerous research and development has been performed to reduce the costs of the systems, and to develop materials which are less cryogenically sensitive [10]. |
| Micro CAES | Compressed air energy storage (CAES) uses compressed air to store energy generated at one time for use at another time. Although there are only two CAES applications at large scale around the world [2], small scale CAES has recently gotten a lot of attention. The micro-CAES is a technology for electrical and thermal energy storage, it could improve energy efficiency and optimizing operating efficiency while safeguarding the environment. It can be used as an alternative to the battery for industrial applications, such as UPS and back-up power systems [2,15,19]. |
| Micro PHS | Pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHS) can be categorized into large, small, micro, and pico. A small pumped hydroelectric energy storage may have a capacity of up to a few MW; however, there is no such standard definition or very clear capacity division. A micro PHS may have a capacity of up to 100 kW and could provide power to isolated or small communities and may also be connected to grids where wind and other renewable sources of energy are being used. A pico size PHS can be used for plants of installed capacities of less than 5 kW. These are used to store the energy produced from wind or solar photovoltaic systems for remote communities where the power requirement is only for a few [4,5,10]. |
| Solar fuels | Solar fuel is a relatively new technology to electrical energy storage. Methods to produce solar fuels include natural photosynthesis, artificial photosynthesis, and thermochemical approaches [2]. Research in solar fuels has recently undergone significant advances, making it possible for it to become cost-effective for energy storage applications in the near future [1]. |
| Thermal energy storage | Thermal energy storage (TES) covers a variety of technologies that store available heat energy using different approaches in insulated repositories [2]. TES systems can store heat or cold to be used later under varying conditions such as temperature, location or power. TES is utilized in order to overcome the mismatch between energy generation and energy use. There are three types of thermal energy storage system, namely sensible heat storage, latent heat storage, and thermochemical storage. Latent heat TES takes on phase change materials (PCMs) as the storage media and uses the energy absorption or emission in liquid-solid transition of these PCMs at constant temperature. On the other hand, thermochemical energy storage using thermochemical materials (TCMs). The most important challenge with TCM is to find the appropriate reversible chemical reaction for the energy source used [4,12,20]. |
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