Ireland Testing Large Scale Batteries for Wind Energy

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)-- Ireland is the latest country to join the race for testing electricity storage solutions for windfarms.

Mainstream Renewable Power Limited (Dublin, Ireland), with assistance from Enterprise Ireland, will conduct a study to assess the commercial viability of attaching a large-scale storage device--such as a battery--to an operating windfarm in Ireland. It joins a number of European projects researching methods of storing windfarm-generated power than can be fed to the electricity grid on days when the wind isn't blowing. This is what Mainstream called the "the single biggest challenge faced by wind power generation in the world today."

The Wind-Storage Hybrid Study will look at integrating wind generation with a mixture of flywheel, synchronous condenser and battery technologies to design a system which can store electricity generated when there is little demand, like at night, and release it when demand rises in the day. The goal is to assess the commercial viability of installing 2 megawatts (MW) of storage connected directly to a 10 MW windfarm.

"This is very exciting for the industry globally because if successful, it has the potential to revolutionize our electricity systems," explained Joe Corbett, Mainstream's Head of Technology. "The benefits of wind power are widely accepted; it's a free fuel source, it's good for the environment and it will never run out. Its biggest technical challenge is it's only available when the wind blows. The aim of this new hybrid system is to change that. Interestingly, winds are often highest at night when people are sleeping. The hybrid system can store the electricity generated at night and release it onto the system in the morning when people are having their breakfast and demand for electricity spikes. Essentially it aims to match supply and demand more closely; something we can't do right now with wind and solar power."

Last year, the Scottish island of Gigha-- which hosted the country's first community-owned windfarm--became the focus of an experiment aimed at solving the issue of how to store energy generated by wind, tide and wave power plants. The project, which will involve building giant batteries containing 75,000 liters of sulfuric acid mixed with vanadium pentoxide, is intended to allow power generated by the island's wind turbines to be stored for later use. The batteries can store enough power to supply the island with 100 kilowatts (kW) of electricity for 12 hours when winds are weak.

Last month, Industrial Info reported on German firm Robert Bosch AG (Stuttgart, Germany) launching a large battery system, which stores wind energy, delaying the feed into the grid. Batteries like this will help reduce the need for new grids and helps to better integrate wind power into the existing grid system. The compound battery has lithium-ion and vanadium redox flow components to store wind power whenever the grid is overloaded. It also releases the power into the grid when wind power generation drops. For additional information, see July 29, 2014, article - Large German Hybrid Lithium-Ion/Vanadium Redox Battery Stores Wind Power for Grid Feed.

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