Battery storage uptake by households surges as grid costs soar
Battery storage systems being installed in Australia look set to confirm earlier predictions that battery installations will treble in 2017.
Focus on the Solution – Not the Problem
Powering the new economy with clean energy
Many households and businesses already attach battery storage to their clean energy systems. Now is the time to grow the industry, encourage the take-up of storage and help make Australia a renewable energy leader. With public interest high, now is the time for a targeted, five-year support package to drive down costs and put battery storage in reach of every household and business.
Battery storage can reduce network peaks and troughs by storing electricity during off-peak times and discharging it during the peak.
Peak shaving to reduce peak demand charges
For many businesses it is important to look at using battery storage to reduce peak demand charges. Often, even one large energy spike can greatly increase total energy bills with this drawdown increasing the energy charge for all power usage. If the peak demand needed can be reduced then the overall electricity charges can be reduced.
Peak demand usually occurs when several high energy using pieces of machinery come into use at the same time, particularly if this machinery has large initial starting energy draws.
Peak demand is usually calculated based on the highest 15 minute average usage over a given month, even if it only occurs once a month (some energy retailers actually use the maximum usage over a yearly period, again even if this maximum only occurs once a year). These demand charges are also often charged on a tiered scale with higher charges the higher the peak is.
What is a Molten Salt Battery
Molten Salt Battery
When it comes to green energy, the intermittent nature of renewable sources like wind, solar, and tidal power presents a difficult problem for the electrical grid management. Peak energy production often doesn’t correlate well with peak energy demand, necessitating a means of storing excess energy when consumption is low. As renewable energy sources become more prevalent, and the need to curb fossil fuel emissions continues to increase, finding a new grid energy storage solution has never been more important. It is the final piece of technology required to bring about wide scale adoption of renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines.
- What is a Molten Salt Battery?
Molten salt batteries, especially liquid metal batteries, are increasingly gaining interest from the energy community as a grid energy storage solution for renewable energy sources. Combining high energy and power densities, long life times, and low cost materials, they have the potential to meet the unique demands of grid scale energy storage. A molten salt battery is a class of battery that uses a molten salts electrolyte. The components of molten salt batteries are solid at room temperature, allowing them to be stored inactive for long periods time. During activation, the cathode, anode and electrolyte layers separate due to their relative densities and immiscibility. The molten salt layer in the middle serves as an electrolyte with a high ionic conductivity, and is the medium through which the ionic species travel as the battery charges and discharges.
- Advantages of Molten Salt Batteries
So much conflicting information on battery storage
When consumers go online to compare different batteries there is so much conflicting information available it is very difficult to get a clear picture of what is available and to understand what is happening in the industry. What is important is you compare similar products and don’t just listen to what salespeople are telling you.
If a product has been in use for a number of years the quoted figures are more likely to be reliable than if a product is new and hasn’t yet been tested in real life conditions. Generally batteries are tested in factories at 25 degrees. This can produce different results than are experienced in real life when temperatures vary widely.
Currently there are no relevant battery standards in Australia