Energy Storage: A Nontechnical Guide
I recently received the book, Energy Storage: A Nontechnical Guide, by Richard Baxter, which I enjoyed reading and would recommend to anyone who would like a good reference on energy storage.
The book is written in a language that should be easily understandable to anyone, technically trained or not. It clearly explains how energy storage can decouple generation from demand, thus making possible a variety of uses including: storing power during off peak for use during peak periods, smoothing peaks and valleys in demand, eliminating or delaying expansion of generating facilities, dispatchable power, reducing the intermittency of renewable resources, making the grid more reliable and improving the quality of power.
Over one-third of the book is devoted to a description of 10 energy storage technologies. It goes through a comprehensive description of each technology from an overview to more details on several aspects of the technology, examples of installations and the status and challenges facing each storage technology. The design and operation narratives go into enough detail to fully understand the technology without bogging down the reader with theoretical details. His many examples of how energy storage is or could be used make it much easier to understand the technologies and how they can be used.
The chapters on how energy storage can benefit the electric power industries and the role energy storage could play with renewable energy generation are very insightful to understanding the potential of energy storage systems. The role energy storage systems can play in stabilizing our increasingly unstable grid while reducing the need for many new generating facilities and transmission lines is an important concept which shows that our grid can be more distributed than was once believed.
The 302 page book is divided into six sections with a major emphasis on the technologies as indicated by the following outline:
- How energy storage can benefit the electric power industries
- How energy is stored in the fossil fuel markets
- Energy storage technologies
- pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS)
- compressed air energy storage (CAES)
- flow batteries-vanadium redux, zinc bromine, polysulfide bromide and cerium zinc
- sodium sulfide battery
- lead-acid battery
- nickle cadmium battery
- flywheels
- electrochemical capacitors
- superconducting magnetic energy storage
- thermal energy storage
- design and operation of each technology
- history of each technology
- cost issues for each technology
- examples of installations for each technology
- prospects and challenges of each technologies
- major developers of each technologies
- Applications of energy storage
- The role energy storage can play in renewable energy
- How energy storage could effect future energy development
Forty illustrations make reading and understanding the text much easier. Numerous references in each section and a 12-page bibliography are included for those interested in digging deeper into these technologies.
The author, Richard Baxter is a Senior Technical Analyst with Ardour Capital Investments, an investment bank specializing in energy technologies and alternative energy markets. He has written over 40 reports and industry journal articles; a recent article appeared on Energy Pulse. Before joining Ardour he was with the Energy Storage Council. Previously he had worked for the Yankee Group and Standard & Poor's DRI Energy Group. Richard has a M.S. degree in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.S. in History from Tennessee State University, and a B.S. in Materials Engineering from Virginia Tech.
The book is available from Amazon here.
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Posted by: bali | May 12, 2006 at 11:40 AM
Here is a link might be useful :
a technical guide :
http://www.electrical-installation.merlingerin.com/
Posted by: jeremy | June 22, 2006 at 11:24 AM
What is the real cost or savings for KW's shifted off-peak with thermal storage?
grand@michael-glover.com
Posted by: Michael Glover | December 16, 2006 at 06:14 PM
Nice blog about energy storage.
http://www.mrsolarenergy.com
Posted by: Taniya | December 11, 2007 at 12:58 AM
Let me see if I understand the theory correctly. To keep from building new generating facilities we should build new storage facilities that are bigger and have greater environmental impact. Then we can blight the country side with windmills.
Posted by: Kit P | December 11, 2007 at 09:10 AM