Against the backdrop of swift and significant cost reductions, the use of battery energy storage in power systems is increasing. Not that energy storage is a new phenomenon: pumped hydro-storage has seen widespread deployment for decades. There is, however, no doubt we are entering a new phase full of potential and opportunities.
“If you think about utility-scale stationary applications, maybe you don’t need lithium-ion batteries. You can use another one that is cheaper and can provide the services that you want like, for example, vanadium flow batteries,” said Francisco Boshell, a researcher at the International Renewable Energy Agency.
In thermodynamic terms, a brand-new main battery and a charged secondary battery are in an energetically greater condition, implying that the corresponding absolute value of free enthalpy (Gibb’s free energy) is higher [222, 223].
In a secondary battery, energy is stored by using electric power to drive a chemical reaction. The resultant materials are “richer in energy” than the constituents of the discharged device .
Energy produced by such turbines can go to waste if it can't be stored. So, the island is turning to a new generation of batteries designed to stockpile massive amounts of energy — a critical step toward replacing power plants fueled by coal, gas and oil, which create a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Storage batteries can also provide renewable power in a stable form, eliminating any disturbances that intermittency might cause. Storage batteries for large-scale power generation are a relatively new concept but much like pumped-storage hydroelectricity, which dates to the early 20th century.