During Singapore International Energy, Paul Gardner, Segment Director – Storage at DNV GL talked about the growing and critical need for optimized storage solutions and the likely technology developments in the future, as the electricity demand increases.
Namely, according to DNV GL Energy Transition Outlook 2017 report , electricity demand will increase by 140% by 2050, and of this, 72% will be generated by renewables.
This development makes crucial the advancements in storage solutions can help to address the variable and intermittent nature of renewable energy.
Talking about storage, Mr. Gardner said that, from the storage already existed on electricity systems 95% of it is pumped hydro. This happens because of energy arbitrage, in order to sell the energy at high price periods or high value periods.
But in order to further grow renewables and their requirements, a new regulatory framework is needed.
“There are some regulatory barriers. We have found previously in the growth of renewables, that actually regulatory issues can be serious impediments because of the structural delays that are inherent in regulation. Regulation is very close to legislation and it needs, for very good reasons, it needs time to get consensus and for everyone to understand what’s happening and what is being proposed,” Paul Gardner said.
As far as batteries are concerned, about 90% of the batteries are manufactured for long term energy storage, rechargeable batteries, and they are set to be used in electric vehicles.
So the electric vehicle market is driving these manufacturing improvements, and those will drive the cost reductions.
In fact, according to a study by MIT, in the near future the production of batteries will not be limited because of shortages in the raw materials they require.
In particular, over the course of the next 15 years, no serious delays will be notice in batteries production, according to the study, as in most cases the supplies will be reasonable.
Moreover, the Maritime Battery Forum in cooperation with Grenland Energy, ABB, and DNV GL for the Norwegian NOx-fund published a report regarding the life cycle assessment of batteries used in ships.
According to this report, for an electric ferry, the environmental impact of producing the batteries can be counterbalanced by emission reduction in the ship within 1.4 months. Furthermore, in the case that batteries are used in a typical offshore supply vessel as a partial replacement for a main engine, it will take 1.5 months.
Continuing, Mr. Gardner outlined the different forms of storage. Speaking of this, the following are the different types of storage:
- Battery technologies
- Flywheels deliver a large amount of power in a very short time
- Super capacitors are able to deliver very large amounts of power in very short time scales.
Finally, Paul Gardner mentioned that there is no technical limit for the creation of larger scale energy systems supplied 100% by wind and PV.
“Technically that can be done. The real limit is an economic limit, because, particularly in the northern latitudes where there is much greater seasonality. Not just seasonality in the renewable resource, it is also seasonality in the energy demand, particularly heat demand,” Mr. Gardner noted.
In order to tackle the problem of seasonality, a greater interconnection across countries and between countries and flexible generation, particularly gas turbines, are important.
Last month, Bellona said during COP23 that an electric revolution for a zero-emission future is taking place to the seas. During this COP23 event, Bellona and partners shared their stories and best practices on electrification, while calling for a regulatory framework to ensure the whole industry follows suit.
Furthermore, electric shipping is on the rise. For example, the Port of Barcelona informed it has invested a total of € 926,000 to promote electrical mobility in the port area, as part of its Air Quality Improvement Plan, which aims to effectively reduce the emissions from port activity.
In addition, China launched the world’s first fully electric cargo ship. The 2,000-metric-ton fully electric cargo ship has been launched in Guangzhou, China, and will operate along the inland section of the Pearl River Delta.
