Investment in energy storage vital

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/-/investment-in-energy-storage-vital-if-renewables-to-achieve-full-potential

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Investment in energy storage vital[/font]

[font size=4]Government subsidies should be used to encourage investment in energy storage systems if renewable power is to be fully integrated into the sector, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia.[/font]

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However, the researchers argue that as the amount of renewable energy entering national power grids increases, so does the potential impact of volatility and therefore the need for storage. As subsidies for setting up renewable energy projects are gradually being removed, because they are reaching market maturity, these funds should instead be used to develop storage systems that could provide viable investment opportunities.

The study, led by Dr Dimitris Zafirakis and Dr Konstantinos Chalvatzis of UEA’s Norwich Business School, explored the potential of energy storage systems to return profits by buying when energy is cheap and selling when it is expensive, known as arbitrage. They tested this in a number of European electricity markets and matched various trading strategies and storage technologies with market characteristics.

The researchers found that this buy cheap, sell expensive approach alone cannot provide adequate revenue to justify investment. However, if the decarbonisation of electricity is to be achieved by increasing renewables, investment in storage has to be encouraged, for example through a combination of arbitrage and state subsidies. The findings are published today in the journal Applied Energy.

Dr Chalvatzis, a senior lecturer in business and climate change, said: “It is good to adjust subsidies for renewable energy technologies that have reached maturity, but you have to start thinking about subsidising storage, as this can take us to using 100 per cent renewable energy sources.

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27/05/16[/font][/font]

[NNadir]

1. Really? We should invest heavily in a technology that according to the 2nd law, wastes energy?

The renewable energy industry soaked two trillion bucks in ten years and still can't produce significant energy. Now we should throw even more money at this dubious proposition to make it far less efficient.

The second law of thermodynamics dictates that whenever one converts one form of energy to another, there are intrinsic losses to entropy, generally observed as heat. Efforts by congress or any other body to repeal the 2nd law, um, won't work. No less than Albert Einstein considered that the laws of thermodynamics were the only laws of science that would never be overturned. Anyone with a battery charger of any kind who is not numb can directly experience the second law by touching a charger to understand that it is warm.

The so called "renewable energy" scheme, in particular the expensive, failed and environmentally disastrous wind and solar industries, can't even keep up with the growth in the use of dangerous natural gas, never mind reduce the vast quantities being used.

But nonetheless, we have advocates for making it even more useless.

One wonders if the people spouting this nonsense have looked recently at the concentration of carbon dioxide in the planetary atmosphere, or have considered the grotesque poverty on this planet that derives, in part, from wasting money on things that don't work.

And let's be clear: So called "renewable energy" hasn't worked; it isn't working; and it won't work.

For that same two trillion bucks squandered on so called "renewable energy," we could have built a few hundred nuclear reactors - the number being determined by the levels of common sense - and have been producing tens of exajoules of energy each year using well understood mature technology.

That unfortunately is not what was obtained. What was obtained was a surrender to fear and ignorance, with the result, that in 2016, the rate of accumulation of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide is growing at the fastest rate ever observed.

Enjoy the holiday weekend.