Different Types of Renewable Energy Storage
Moksha D -
Welcome back to my blog! In the past week, I was focused on the different forms of storage for renewables. My project will focus primarily on lithium-ion batteries but for now, I wanted to explore different forms of storage as well. This included thermal storage, mechanical storage, and the pumped hydro to name a few.
Thermal energy storage is essentially storing thermal energy which is temperature dependent in mediums including water or what is known as an ice-slush tank. Thermal energy storage heats up a material where energy is available and will release it when needed.
Mechanical storage uses what is known as a flywheel which stores rotational energy and when renewable energy is needed, the motor creates a spinning force similar to a turbine which will generate electricity.
Amongst these, SRP, Salt River Project, is in the process of approving and beginning to design a pumped hydro. The building stage of the project will begin as early as 2030.
The pumped hydro essentially takes whatever water is lying in the lower reservoir and transfers it to the upper reservoir when energy is needed. The turbine then runs and generates electricity.
SRP was hesitant to begin a project like this because of how expensive it is to build a pumped hydro plant but because of the efficiency of a system like this to store renewable energy, the expenses are not hindering the project.
Thank you for reading!
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