A New Twist on Sustainable Energy Storage

 

Complete renewable energy usage is the goal of most people and governments from around the world. The largest problem facing the proponents of these sources of energy is the lack of large-scale and long-term sustainable energy storage. These types of storage are imperative given the intermittent nature of wind and solar power generation. On this note, a small German company is developing a synthetic natural gas process that is a new twist on 12v 200ah battery . This company believes that long-term and large-scale storage is possible using the current natural gas infrastructure, already available in Germany. This article will explore the new ideas, technology, and proposed solutions initiated by this German start-up company.

Germany- A leader in the field

Germany is one of the leaders in the development and use of sustainable energy technologies. They have an aggressive plan in place to increase use of renewable energy sources and reduce their carbon emissions. Germany also has a large nuclear energy infrastructure that was recently idled after the Fukushima disaster in Japan. The idling of their nuclear facilities, forced them to activate more coal-burning plants, to replace the lost electrical production. This created a large incentive to perfect an energy storage solution to achieve their carbon reduction goals. A small company called SolarFuel is on the leading edge of this push.

SolarFuel has developed a power-to-gas method that converts green electricity into CO2 neutral, renewable natural gas. The process is basically a synthetic version of naturally occurring photosynthesis. When excess wind or solar electrical energy is produced, the company can convert that electrical energy into hydrogen or natural gas. This is a one step process for hydrogen and a two-step system for synthetic natural gas. The newly converted energy can then be stored in the existing natural gas storage infrastructure. To gain a better understanding, we will examine the process of electrolysis.

Electrolysis- The process

The first stage of electrolysis feeds electrical energy through water and separates the water into hydrogen (h2) and oxygen (o). In the second stage, carbon dioxide (co2) is added to the hydrogen creating methane (natural) gas. The attainable levels of efficiency are about 60 percent. The newly created synthetic natural gas (SNG) is of a standard quality and can be used in any application that requires natural gas.

The advantages of fuel conversion

Germany currently has.04 TWh of electrical energy storage. Estimates show that 20 to 40 TWh of storage would be necessary to sustain a complete renewable energy production system. This dictates that the proposed storage needs be large-scale and long-term. Synthetic natural gas meets both criteria and is a carbon neutral strategy. Here are some of the advantages of the fuel conversion process:

• SNG can store energy for long periods of time and is accessible as needed.

• The accommodation of large amounts of renewable energy is possible.

• Removes bottlenecks in the electricity grid and can smooth out renewable energy production peaks.

• Wind and solar costs are expected to come down, while fossil fuels are expected to increase in price. This technology allows almost unlimited production of renewable energy.

• Application diversity- This enables renewable energy to be used for electricity, power, heat, and mobility (transportation) as needed.

• This is a bi-directional strategy- (power- to- gas) and (gas- to- power).

Energy storage is a key component in any sustainable energy system. The storage is needed to address the problems relating to fluctuation variables, supply security, and grid stability associated with renewable energy production. SNG meets the requirements of being both a large-scale and long-term storage medium. This may be a very good stop-gap solution. However, this is only a carbon neutral strategy. In the long-term, our energy requirement will need to be met by carbon free alternatives. SolarFuel and SNG are certainly a new twist on the sustainable energy storage problem.

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