Energy storage: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 15:57, 26 February 2024

In the pursuit of green energy, storage is needed for 2 reasons:

To smooth out the intermittency of solar and wind power.
To store energy in electric vehicles.

Note: This page does not include thermal energy storage.

Types / Candidates

Type	Status
Sodium-ion batteries	Good potential / needs investment.
Sodium-sulfur batteries	Good potential / needs investment.
Hydrogen gas	Okay for some applications, but too lossy & platinum-intensive for others.
Lithium ferro phosphate batteries	Okay if used in moderation. A bit too lithium-intensive to be a general solution.
Lithium-ion batteries (NMC/NCA type)	Not scalable enough: Too cobalt-intensive.
Lithium-sulfur batteries	Can't handle enough charge cycles.
Lead-acid batteries	Toxic / hazardous.
Stationary storage only (power grid, not vehicles)
Iron redox flow batteries	Good potential / needs investment.
Compressed air	?
Pumped hydro	Only viable in rare geographical locations.
Flywheels	?
Gravity blocks	Not viable: Outrageously high environmental footprint of construction.

For more details, read the wikipage of each energy storage type. Links are in the table.

So far, sodium-based batteries seem to have the most hope of being a widespread solution - along with iron-based batteries for stationary energy storage.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 In the pursuit of green [[energy]], storage is needed for 2 reasons:
 # To smooth out the intermittency of [[solar]] and [[wind]] power.
-# To store energy in [[electric vehicles|electric vehicles]] without gasoline or diesel.
+# To store energy in [[electric vehicles]].
-==Types==
+<small>Note: This page does not include [[thermal energy storage]].</small>
-===Lithium-ion batteries===
+==Types / Candidates==
+{|class="wikitable"
+!Type
+!Status
+|-
+|[[Sodium-ion batteries]]
+|Good potential / needs investment.
+|-
+|[[Sodium-sulfur batteries]]
+|Good potential / needs investment.
+|-
+|[[Hydrogen gas]]
+|Okay for some applications, but too lossy & platinum-intensive for others.
+|-
+|[[Lithium ferro phosphate batteries]]<!--(LiFePo4 or LFP)-->
+|Okay if used in moderation. A bit too lithium-intensive to be a general solution.
+|-
+|[[Lithium-ion batteries]] <small>(NMC/NCA type)</small>
+|Not scalable enough: Too [[cobalt]]-intensive.
+|-
+|[[Lithium-sulfur batteries]]
+|Can't handle enough charge cycles.<!--
+|-
+|Lithium Titanate (Li4Ti5O12 or LTO)
+|? -->
+|-
+|[[Lead-acid batteries]]
+|Toxic / hazardous.
+|-
+!colspan=2|Stationary storage only (power grid, not vehicles)
+|-
+|[[Iron redox flow batteries]]
+|Good potential / needs investment.
+|-
+|[[Compressed air energy storage|Compressed air]]
+|?
+|-
+|[[Pumped hydro]]
+|Only viable in rare geographical locations.
+|-
+|[[Flywheels]]
+|?
+|-
+|[[Gravity blocks]]
+|Not viable: Outrageously high environmental footprint of construction.
+|-
+|}
+<small>For more details, read the wikipage of each energy storage type. Links are in the table.</small>
-===Iron-redox flow batteries===
+So far, sodium-based batteries seem to have the [[the great battery challenge|most hope]] of being a widespread solution - along with iron-based batteries for stationary energy storage.
-===Flywheels===
+<!--
+==How much energy storage might be needed?==
+Some quick estimates:
-===Compressed air===
+===Vehicles===
+{{dp
+|ev.battery
+|65.2 kWh
+|Energy capacity of the average electric vehicle battery
+|<cite>Useable battery capacity of full electric vehicles</cite><br />https://ev-database.org/cheatsheet/useable-battery-capacity-electric-car
+}}
+{{dp
+|world.cars
+|1.446 billion
+|
+|<cite>How Many Cars Are There In The World in 2022?</cite><br />https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2021/06/how-many-cars-are-there-in-the-world/
+}}
+{{dp
+|commercial_factor
+|2
+|
+|Without this, we'd be calculating for just personal vehicles. But we also need to factor in commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks. These vary widely in size, and data is hard to find, so for simplicity sake, we just assume that they'd add up to about the same as personal vehicles - thus doubling total energy storage needed. This assumption is based on the fact that freight trucks are a somewhat smaller share of [[energy demand scenarios|energy demand]] than passenger vehicles, but the trucks probably need a longer range.
+}}
+{{calc
+|world.cars * ev.battery * commercial_factor
+|terajoules
+|vehicle_energy_storage_needed
+}}
+^ This could be reduced by [[walkability]] and [[public transit]] (specifically [[trains]]).
-===Gravity blocks===
+===Other===
+{{dp
+|other_energy.tfc
+|3290.73 Mtoe/year
+|Global energy usage, total final consumption minus transport and industrial
+|Source: Key World Energy Statistics 2020 (IEA report)<br />We subtract transport because it was already dealt with above. We subtract industrial because - in principle, most factories/industry could just run during peak sunlight/wind, needing negligable energy storage.
+}}
+{{dp
+|storage_timescale
+|24 hours
+|How big the "buffer" of energy storage would have to be to be resiliant against weather fluctuations
+|The exact number could be up for debate. Join the {{talk}}.
+}}
+{{calc
+|other_energy.tfc * storage_timescale
+|terajoules
+|other_energy_storage_needed
+}}
+^ This could be reduced by alternative heating/cooling systems for homes/buildings.
+There are more options for this type of energy storage, because it's stationary (not moving in a vehicle).
+These numbers might be reused on other wikipages to assess the large-scale viability of various types of energy storage. Don't worry if you're not familiar with <code>terajoules</code> as an [[energy/units|energy unit]].
+TODO:
+* Improve the above commented-out calculations.
+* Put them in templates {{Grid energy storage}} and {{Vehicle energy storage}}
+* Use the templates on the wikipage of each energy storage type.
+-->
+[[Category:Energy storage]]