Liquid Air as a Battery for Wind Energy

[AsleepInYorkshire]

How liquid air could help keep the lights on
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50140110

It has been tried at small scale but now the firm behind it, Highview, has announced that a grid-scale 50MW plant will be built in the north of England on the site of a former conventional power plant.

I'm not an engineer but a quick Google and 50 megawatts is enough to power about 50,000 homes.

AiY

[johnhemming]

The efficiency of conversion is key for all Energy projects. Wind Energy can be stored off grid as hydrogen and the conversation back to electricity in a fuel cell runs at around 33% (there is a safety issue with Hydrogen, but there are always some safety issues).

[AsleepInYorkshire]

The efficiency of conversion is key for all Energy projects. Wind Energy can be stored off grid as hydrogen and the conversation back to electricity in a fuel cell runs at around 33% (there is a safety issue with Hydrogen, but there are always some safety issues).

Trying to understand this simply does it mean that we would need three turbines instead of one to store our energy requirements?

AiY

[AsleepInYorkshire]

The efficiency of conversion is key for all Energy projects. Wind Energy can be stored off grid as hydrogen and the conversation back to electricity in a fuel cell runs at around 33% (there is a safety issue with Hydrogen, but there are always some safety issues).

Found this
Liquid-air energy storage: The latest new “battery” on the UK grid
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/06 ... e-uk-grid/
an LAES system is only 60- to 75-percent efficient, compared to the 75- to 85-percent efficiency of lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries can also respond to minute frequency changes on the grid almost instantaneously, whereas LAES systems deliver electricity by turbine, so their delivery response time isn't as quick.

AiY

[AsleepInYorkshire]

But then digging Lithium out of the ground isn't a very gren thing to do.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-lat ... -you-think

A poisoned chalice? Damned if we do and damned if we don't?

I've always wondered how much carbon we create when we make a wind turbine. I'm guessing someone has done the maths and they don't use anywhere near as much as they save.

I still feel the current reality is no short term options other than nuclear power, if not for the UK but for the developing world. And if we are going to "set world beating records" with carbon dioxide reduction to nil by 2050 someone is going to have to reinvent the aircraft in the next two weeks as we need to get it into detail design and production

AiY

[AsleepInYorkshire]

But then digging Lithium out of the ground isn't a very green thing to do.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-lat ... -you-think

The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium ... ent-impact

1. Tesla Model S battery contains about 12 kilograms of lithium
2. Grid storage solutions helping to balance renewable energy need much more.
3. China's 5 year plan for electric cars is key driver behind exponential world demand.
4. Lithium demand is causing water contamination and shortages where it is mined.
5. Lithium is not recycled in large quantities. It isn't an easy cost effective task
6. Lithium producing countries could become a new OPEC and inflate prices.
7. Cobalt and nickel are a greater threat to the development of electric batteries.
8. Generally poor custody of lithium already mined.

I think this article tends to suggest that ultimately lithium can be extracted from the sea in an eco-friendly way. But the lack of recycling is a big downside. And the issues surrounding cobalt only being available from one country does put a huge economic pressure on the sums, especially as that country is The Congo and much is currently mined by child labour.

AiY