CONTACTS
|
April 09 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine
Lab develops new energy-storage solutions
Innovations “crucial” to nation’s energy future
David Thorn and Albert Migliori
discuss new ways to store energy. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez
As demand for energy continues to rise, policymakers
and researchers increasingly turn toward
clean renewable energy sources to meet energy
needs. “The world uses about 17 trillion joules
of energy per second, and that rate is likely to
double by 2050,” said David Thorn of Inorganic
Isotope and Actinide Chemistry.
Although solar, wind, water, and geothermal
power is renewable, it is not reliable, because
these sources generate electricity only intermittently,
Thorn said. “By increasing the use of
wind and solar power, we introduce a degree of
uncertainty into our electric supply and actually
make the grid less stable,” he explained. If the
electrical supply doesn’t meet the instantaneous
demand for even a very short time, large parts
of the power grid can shut down, Thorn said. To
ensure that doesn’t happen, some energy must
be stored, ready to be released when needed.
The Office of Science at the Department of
Energy called energy storage “perhaps the most
crucial need for this nation’s secure energy
future.” Improving New Mexico’s ability to capture
and store electrical energy
would be a real plus for the state,
which has the highest fractional
utilization of wind energy of any
state nationwide, said Albert
Migliori of the National High
Magnetic Field Laboratory.
“There’s enough energy generated
by New Mexico wind farms
in March and April to run a utility
grid for weeks without turning on
a coal or nuclear plant,” he said.
Laboratory researchers are looking
into new ways of storing
electrical energy. “Conservative,
incremental improvements
in storage technology won’t
get us there,” Thorn said. “We
need revolutionary changes.”
Solutions include a distributed storage system that would equip every New
Mexican home with its own storage battery,
noted Migliori. “There’s already a utility grid
that carries power to every New Mexico home,”
he said. “What if every house had a little bit of
electrical-storage capacity, say a bank of lithium-ion batteries that sat in a box beneath the
electric meter?” Consumers could then use the
existing grid to distribute the wind farm output
to thousands of these storage boxes, eliminating
the need to build new transmission lines, he
explained.
Expanding the existing grid and developing mini
electrical storage units for homes, buildings, and
vehicles represents a significant modeling and
computation challenge that the Laboratory, with
its expertise in both modeling and computation,
is well equipped to meet, Migliori said, adding,
“It’s a wonderful opportunity.”
--Excerpted from an article by Jay Schecker published
in 1663 magazine.
Other Headlines
 |
Issues
|
