Peaking stations traditionally deliver an extra surge of power to grids when demand exceeds baseline supply. This is an expensive option in terms of running costs, but they can come on-line rapidly. Increasing criticism is piling up in terms of air pollution and carbon costs. For these reasons flow battery alternatives to peaking gas are back on the agenda.
Natural Gas Peaking Under Fire From Flow Batteries
Back in 2020 Sandia National Laboratories proposed replacing U.S. natural gas peaking plants with renewable energy alternatives. There were over 1,000 ageing gas turbines in operation back then, and that number has remained stable.
However, progress to implement this proposal has been far behind what we need to make a sizeable dent on global warming. Most alternative energy ‘peaking stations’ still rely on lithium-ion batteries that ‘run out of gas’ after a couple of hours.
But we need something far better that, Clean Technica confirms in a report on May 10, 2024. Today’s energy storage systems need to run for half a day at least, and preferably longer. This puts flow battery alternatives to peaking stations back on utility conference tables in North America and worldwide.
How Flow Batteries Could Balance Utility Grid Demand
A flow battery stores two active chemicals in separate containers with a membrane between them. A pump circulates these liquids through an exchange chamber, ensuring a steady supply of ions releasing electrical energy through an outside circuit. Recharging flow batteries is as simple as topping up their fluids.
Clean Technica suggests using this simply elegant system, to replace natural peaking gas stations that operate semi-continuously as stop-gaps. The advantages to using flow battery alternatives to peaking stations, include long operating lives, with very little mechanical degradation over time.
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