NGK Insulators - NaS Batteriehersteller - Die letzten 30 Beiträge
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8.11.
NGK Begins CO2 Capture Demonstration for CCUS
Capturing CO2 from Exhaust Gas of Ceramics Firing Kiln to be Utilized for Methanation
https://www.ngk-insulators.com/en/news/20231108_1.html
NGK INSULATORS, LTD. (hereinafter “NGK”) announces that it has started a carbon dioxide (CO2) capture demonstration at its headquarters area to achieve carbon neutrality through the NGK Group’s business activities. In the next fiscal year, NGK will also install a methanation system to engage in Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU).
...
One approach to achieve carbon neutrality is CCUS, or the capture, utilization, and storage of emitted CO2, but the high cost makes it a challenge to implement. In addition, the exhaust gas from ceramics firing kilns tends to be more expensive than that from thermal power stations, where many CO2 capture demonstrations have been conducted, as the CO2 concentration is lower, and capture is less efficient.
By starting CCU demonstrations as early as possible using technologies that are already in practical use, NGK aims to establish system specifications and operating conditions suitable for its firing kilns and implement energy management, such as utilizing unused low-temperature waste heat, to apply efficient CCUS at a reasonable cost.
...
NGK Begins CO2 Capture Demonstration for CCUS
Capturing CO2 from Exhaust Gas of Ceramics Firing Kiln to be Utilized for Methanation
https://www.ngk-insulators.com/en/news/20231108_1.html
NGK INSULATORS, LTD. (hereinafter “NGK”) announces that it has started a carbon dioxide (CO2) capture demonstration at its headquarters area to achieve carbon neutrality through the NGK Group’s business activities. In the next fiscal year, NGK will also install a methanation system to engage in Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU).
...
One approach to achieve carbon neutrality is CCUS, or the capture, utilization, and storage of emitted CO2, but the high cost makes it a challenge to implement. In addition, the exhaust gas from ceramics firing kilns tends to be more expensive than that from thermal power stations, where many CO2 capture demonstrations have been conducted, as the CO2 concentration is lower, and capture is less efficient.
By starting CCU demonstrations as early as possible using technologies that are already in practical use, NGK aims to establish system specifications and operating conditions suitable for its firing kilns and implement energy management, such as utilizing unused low-temperature waste heat, to apply efficient CCUS at a reasonable cost.
...
https://www.ngk-insulators.com/en/
...
...
(1) Explanation of Business Results
In the three months ended June 30, 2023, the Japanese economy showed signs of recovery due to the normalization of economic and social activities due to the reclassification of COVID-19 to Class 5.
Although the economic recovery in Europe was stagnant in some districts, other countries like the U.S. and China showed signs of recovery of the consumption expenditures and the global economy gradually recovered. However, the outlook remains uncertainty due to concerns about the economic downturn caused by the prolonged monetary tightening against price rising.
Under these circumstances, shipments of automotive-related products mainly increased in China in the Environment Business due to the recovery of the automotive volume against the normalization of semiconductor supply. In the Digital Society Business, shipments of components for semiconductor manufacturing equipment and electronic components, declined primarily due to reduced investments in semiconductors and data centers. In the Energy & Industry Business, shipments of power distribution products to in Japan and insulators in U.S. increased.
...
...
...
(1) Explanation of Business Results
In the three months ended June 30, 2023, the Japanese economy showed signs of recovery due to the normalization of economic and social activities due to the reclassification of COVID-19 to Class 5.
Although the economic recovery in Europe was stagnant in some districts, other countries like the U.S. and China showed signs of recovery of the consumption expenditures and the global economy gradually recovered. However, the outlook remains uncertainty due to concerns about the economic downturn caused by the prolonged monetary tightening against price rising.
Under these circumstances, shipments of automotive-related products mainly increased in China in the Environment Business due to the recovery of the automotive volume against the normalization of semiconductor supply. In the Digital Society Business, shipments of components for semiconductor manufacturing equipment and electronic components, declined primarily due to reduced investments in semiconductors and data centers. In the Energy & Industry Business, shipments of power distribution products to in Japan and insulators in U.S. increased.
...
Trading Spotlight
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 61.817.800 von faultcode am 01.11.19 19:13:32der Kurs könnte nun auch mal langsam über diesen GD steigen, nachdem der letzte charttechnische Ausbruch scheiterte:
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 60.218.210 von faultcode am 28.03.19 12:58:08charttechnischer Ausbruch:
=> Grund: das Halbjahresergebnis ist auf Wohlgefallen gestoßen:
https://www.marketscreener.com/NGK-INSULATORS-LTD-6491164/pd…
=> Grund: das Halbjahresergebnis ist auf Wohlgefallen gestoßen:
https://www.marketscreener.com/NGK-INSULATORS-LTD-6491164/pd…
aufgestockt
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 56.188.857 von R-BgO am 15.11.17 13:34:15
"BASF is using NGK Insulators’ sodium sulfur batteries as its entry point into the energy market, with the German chemical company signing up as a sales partner to the Japanese manufacturer.
NGK is currently the only maker of the large-scale sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries, which have been in existence for over 15 years and can store several hours of energy. A project unveiled last year in Niedersachsen, Germany, for example uses NAS batteries that store energy for five hours.
The company also touts the scalability of its batteries, with a recently completed project in Abu Dhabi using 108MW / 648MWh of the systems with a full six hours storage duration. Expected to last 15 years without degradation at system level and able to cope with 100% depth of discharge each day, the insulated batteries operate at about 300 degrees centigrade.
They are thought to be more expensive upfront than lithium-ion but can provide those longer durations of storage that lithium cannot easily do, while the company also claims that in terms of scalability, flow batteries are still far behind the NAS battery.
BASF in recent years became both an investor in and then customer to flow battery company ESS Inc and recently also was announced as customer to a battery-gas turbine hybrid project from Siemens for one of the chemical company’s manufacturing facilities. Through BASF New Business, the company seeks potential scalable commercial opportunities outside of, though related to, its core business.
“Based on our technical expertise gained by own developments in recent years, sodium-sulfur technology fits ideally to the requirements of the emerging market for long-duration energy storage systems,” BASF New Business’ director for ‘Build-Up E-Power-Management’, Dr Frank Prechtl said.
“The NAS battery from NGK enables BASF to enter the energy market and offer customers a reliable, proven solution.”
NGK has already delivered some 4GWh of NAS batteries to about 200 sites globally. However, a previous agreement in 2017 with another German company, Schneider Electric, to “explore” global opportunities for the technology does not appear to have borne fruit. Now, NGK will be able to access BASF’s global channels to sell the NAS, while a joint press release said that both partners “expect a synergistic effect from the broad business activities of the other”.
diesmal ist es BASF:
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/basf-enters-energy-mark…"BASF is using NGK Insulators’ sodium sulfur batteries as its entry point into the energy market, with the German chemical company signing up as a sales partner to the Japanese manufacturer.
NGK is currently the only maker of the large-scale sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries, which have been in existence for over 15 years and can store several hours of energy. A project unveiled last year in Niedersachsen, Germany, for example uses NAS batteries that store energy for five hours.
The company also touts the scalability of its batteries, with a recently completed project in Abu Dhabi using 108MW / 648MWh of the systems with a full six hours storage duration. Expected to last 15 years without degradation at system level and able to cope with 100% depth of discharge each day, the insulated batteries operate at about 300 degrees centigrade.
They are thought to be more expensive upfront than lithium-ion but can provide those longer durations of storage that lithium cannot easily do, while the company also claims that in terms of scalability, flow batteries are still far behind the NAS battery.
BASF in recent years became both an investor in and then customer to flow battery company ESS Inc and recently also was announced as customer to a battery-gas turbine hybrid project from Siemens for one of the chemical company’s manufacturing facilities. Through BASF New Business, the company seeks potential scalable commercial opportunities outside of, though related to, its core business.
“Based on our technical expertise gained by own developments in recent years, sodium-sulfur technology fits ideally to the requirements of the emerging market for long-duration energy storage systems,” BASF New Business’ director for ‘Build-Up E-Power-Management’, Dr Frank Prechtl said.
“The NAS battery from NGK enables BASF to enter the energy market and offer customers a reliable, proven solution.”
NGK has already delivered some 4GWh of NAS batteries to about 200 sites globally. However, a previous agreement in 2017 with another German company, Schneider Electric, to “explore” global opportunities for the technology does not appear to have borne fruit. Now, NGK will be able to access BASF’s global channels to sell the NAS, while a joint press release said that both partners “expect a synergistic effect from the broad business activities of the other”.
Erstposi
=> die Industrials aus Japan sind teilweise brachial zurückgefallen, bei NGK halt etwas weniger, so daß man eigentlich nur noch annehmen kann:
• was nicht mehr fallen mag, kann schlechtestens nur noch seitwärts dahinplätschern
--> hier (lt. Thomson Reuters) für 2019FYe (Japan):
• PE < 12
• P/B = ~1.0
• EV / EBITDA < 6
=> die Industrials aus Japan sind teilweise brachial zurückgefallen, bei NGK halt etwas weniger, so daß man eigentlich nur noch annehmen kann:
• was nicht mehr fallen mag, kann schlechtestens nur noch seitwärts dahinplätschern
--> hier (lt. Thomson Reuters) für 2019FYe (Japan):
• PE < 12
• P/B = ~1.0
• EV / EBITDA < 6
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 58.843.182 von R-BgO am 01.10.18 15:54:04ein Brummer:
UAE integrates 648MWh of sodium sulfur batteries in one swoop
Published: 28 Jan 2019, 15:10
By: Andy Colthorpe
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/uae-integrates-648mwh-o…
Sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries produced by Japan’s NGK Insulators are being put into use on a massive scale in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The company’s battery systems have been deployed across 10 locations – 15 systems in total – adding up to 108MW / 648MWh in total, with each system able to store energy for six hours. The total undertaking includes 12 x 4MW systems and three 20MW systems. The official government Emirates News Agency described the project as the “world’s largest Virtual Battery Plant” as it opened earlier this month.
A representative at NGK’s power business division told Energy-Storage.news the ‘virtual’ description is correct in the sense that the 15 systems in 10 locations “can be controlled as a single plant. While of course they can still be controlled individually when local support to the grid is needed”.
Critical to this aggregation of the systems is the CISC (Centralised Integrated System Controller) which will be located at a control room in Mussafah, an industrial district in Abu Dhabi’s southwest where some of the battery systems are also located, with the rest in nearby Sila. CISC and the NAS systems are “ready to be operated by the TSO (transmission system operator)”, the NGK representative said.
Operational parameters increased from original scope
Awaidha Al Marar, chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Energy, attended an inauguration event on 17 January, as a number of events including Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and World Future Energy Summit (WFES) took place in the region.
The NGK CISC 648MWh project will help the city load balance across its networks during the daytime, as well as providing up to six hours backup in the case of grid outages. As with many energy storage system projects, it is primarily about reducing the strain on the grid at times of peak demand.
According to the NGK representative, the project was originally planned as thermal generation investment deferral, to reduce the cost of network operations and maintenance (O&M) and to increase total system efficiency, “as well securing that diesel will not be used anymore for peak load”. However, as the project was mapped out and development began, other services were added: frequency control, operating reserve and voltage control.
Why sodium sulfur over lithium-ion
While many grid-scale battery projects around the world are currently being executed with lithium-ion batteries, in this instance, the use of sodium sulfur, allowing for six hours of storage, is “mandatory for thermal generation investment deferral”, the NGK spokesman said, with the peak demand period being shifted itself lasting around six hours.
“[Deploying] 1MW of battery energy storage systems allows avoiding the investment in about 1.1MW of combined cycle (gas and steam) thermal power plants,” by increasing availability by about 10%, while O&M costs for battery systems “are much lower” than equivalent costs for thermal generation plants.
Energy-Storage.news asked what made the NAS battery particularly suitable for the Abu Dhabi project. The NGK representative said that the six hours of storage in each battery cell reduces total system cost versus lithium batteries. Lithium-ion systems tend to combine several one-hour duration battery cells, “which increases the integration costs”. NAS battery systems are also less sensitive to external temperature conditions. There is no need for air-conditioning to keep cells at the right operating temperature – unlike lithium batteries, NAS batteries are insulated and operate at about 300 degrees centigrade. Due to the insulation, it is still safe to touch the exterior of the module with bare hands. The NGK representative explained further that the rugged nature of the batteries and the ways they can be used provide further compelling reasons to use them in the Middle East.
NAS batteries are robust for the kind of heavy use – charging and discharging the battery each day in a full cycle from 100% state-of-charge to 0% i.e. a full 100% depth of discharge (DOD), which make generation investment deferral possible. The batteries are expected to last “15 years without degradation at system level”.
In November, Energy-Storage.news reported on the inauguration of a 20MWh NGK NAS battery project in Niedersachsen, Germany, combined with 7.5MW / 2.5MWh of lithium-ion batteries from Hitachi Chemical. That will be a three-year demonstration, developed through Japan’s NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation) and Niedersachsen’s Ministry for Economics, Labour and Transport, as well as authorities in the City of Varel where the demonstration project is located.
Seeds of energy storage’s future
The 648MWh project marks the second announced deployment of NGK NAS batteries in the Emirates, with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announcing in August last year that it will test a 1.2MW / 7.2MWh NGK sodium sulfur battery system at Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.
Also during January, a Smart Grid Station (SGS) was inaugurated in Al Ruwayyah, Dubai by Dubai Supreme Council of Energy chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum. Again, a DEWA project, the SGS was deployed in partnership with South Korea’s state-owned Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
DEWA and KEPCO have been exchanging experiences and best practises knowledge with each other on smart city and smart grid topics, including standardisation. The Internet-of-things technology-backed SGS combines a 200kW PV system with 9kW of wind energy and a 500kWh battery energy storage system. It also uses a large thermal energy storage system which provides cooling and a smart chiller system integrated into the SGS’ building management system. The DWA-KEPCO project has been in the making since November 2015.
UAE integrates 648MWh of sodium sulfur batteries in one swoop
Published: 28 Jan 2019, 15:10
By: Andy Colthorpe
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/uae-integrates-648mwh-o…
Sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries produced by Japan’s NGK Insulators are being put into use on a massive scale in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The company’s battery systems have been deployed across 10 locations – 15 systems in total – adding up to 108MW / 648MWh in total, with each system able to store energy for six hours. The total undertaking includes 12 x 4MW systems and three 20MW systems. The official government Emirates News Agency described the project as the “world’s largest Virtual Battery Plant” as it opened earlier this month.
A representative at NGK’s power business division told Energy-Storage.news the ‘virtual’ description is correct in the sense that the 15 systems in 10 locations “can be controlled as a single plant. While of course they can still be controlled individually when local support to the grid is needed”.
Critical to this aggregation of the systems is the CISC (Centralised Integrated System Controller) which will be located at a control room in Mussafah, an industrial district in Abu Dhabi’s southwest where some of the battery systems are also located, with the rest in nearby Sila. CISC and the NAS systems are “ready to be operated by the TSO (transmission system operator)”, the NGK representative said.
Operational parameters increased from original scope
Awaidha Al Marar, chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Energy, attended an inauguration event on 17 January, as a number of events including Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and World Future Energy Summit (WFES) took place in the region.
The NGK CISC 648MWh project will help the city load balance across its networks during the daytime, as well as providing up to six hours backup in the case of grid outages. As with many energy storage system projects, it is primarily about reducing the strain on the grid at times of peak demand.
According to the NGK representative, the project was originally planned as thermal generation investment deferral, to reduce the cost of network operations and maintenance (O&M) and to increase total system efficiency, “as well securing that diesel will not be used anymore for peak load”. However, as the project was mapped out and development began, other services were added: frequency control, operating reserve and voltage control.
Why sodium sulfur over lithium-ion
While many grid-scale battery projects around the world are currently being executed with lithium-ion batteries, in this instance, the use of sodium sulfur, allowing for six hours of storage, is “mandatory for thermal generation investment deferral”, the NGK spokesman said, with the peak demand period being shifted itself lasting around six hours.
“[Deploying] 1MW of battery energy storage systems allows avoiding the investment in about 1.1MW of combined cycle (gas and steam) thermal power plants,” by increasing availability by about 10%, while O&M costs for battery systems “are much lower” than equivalent costs for thermal generation plants.
Energy-Storage.news asked what made the NAS battery particularly suitable for the Abu Dhabi project. The NGK representative said that the six hours of storage in each battery cell reduces total system cost versus lithium batteries. Lithium-ion systems tend to combine several one-hour duration battery cells, “which increases the integration costs”. NAS battery systems are also less sensitive to external temperature conditions. There is no need for air-conditioning to keep cells at the right operating temperature – unlike lithium batteries, NAS batteries are insulated and operate at about 300 degrees centigrade. Due to the insulation, it is still safe to touch the exterior of the module with bare hands. The NGK representative explained further that the rugged nature of the batteries and the ways they can be used provide further compelling reasons to use them in the Middle East.
NAS batteries are robust for the kind of heavy use – charging and discharging the battery each day in a full cycle from 100% state-of-charge to 0% i.e. a full 100% depth of discharge (DOD), which make generation investment deferral possible. The batteries are expected to last “15 years without degradation at system level”.
In November, Energy-Storage.news reported on the inauguration of a 20MWh NGK NAS battery project in Niedersachsen, Germany, combined with 7.5MW / 2.5MWh of lithium-ion batteries from Hitachi Chemical. That will be a three-year demonstration, developed through Japan’s NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation) and Niedersachsen’s Ministry for Economics, Labour and Transport, as well as authorities in the City of Varel where the demonstration project is located.
Seeds of energy storage’s future
The 648MWh project marks the second announced deployment of NGK NAS batteries in the Emirates, with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announcing in August last year that it will test a 1.2MW / 7.2MWh NGK sodium sulfur battery system at Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.
Also during January, a Smart Grid Station (SGS) was inaugurated in Al Ruwayyah, Dubai by Dubai Supreme Council of Energy chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum. Again, a DEWA project, the SGS was deployed in partnership with South Korea’s state-owned Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
DEWA and KEPCO have been exchanging experiences and best practises knowledge with each other on smart city and smart grid topics, including standardisation. The Internet-of-things technology-backed SGS combines a 200kW PV system with 9kW of wind energy and a 500kWh battery energy storage system. It also uses a large thermal energy storage system which provides cooling and a smart chiller system integrated into the SGS’ building management system. The DWA-KEPCO project has been in the making since November 2015.
seit heute wieder dabei
Schneider Electric, NGK announce partnership to promote NaS battery energy storage systems
Published: 10 Nov 2017
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/schneider-electric-ngk-…
Schneider Electric and NGK Insulators have reached the conclusion of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which both companies will explore global opportunities to jointly market NGK's NAS (R) battery and Schneider Electric's inverter (Conext Core XC ES).
Back in November 2016, both Schneider Electric and NGK successfully completed integration testing of the system between the NAS battery and ES Box at NGK's factory in Komaki City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
Integrating Schneider's energy management technology with NGK’s battery storage technology makes it possible to store large amounts of electricity with a smaller footprint. The battery uses a sodium-sulfur (NaS) chemistry and has been commercially available since 2002, used in 530MW of deployed projects at grid-scale globally.
The Conext Core XC ES is a series of central inverters designed for high efficiency and flexibility for battery-based energy storage systems — with the series boasting a peak efficiency of 99.1%. NGK commercialised the NAS battery system, which is capable of storing MWs of electricity.
Published: 10 Nov 2017
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/schneider-electric-ngk-…
Schneider Electric and NGK Insulators have reached the conclusion of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which both companies will explore global opportunities to jointly market NGK's NAS (R) battery and Schneider Electric's inverter (Conext Core XC ES).
Back in November 2016, both Schneider Electric and NGK successfully completed integration testing of the system between the NAS battery and ES Box at NGK's factory in Komaki City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
Integrating Schneider's energy management technology with NGK’s battery storage technology makes it possible to store large amounts of electricity with a smaller footprint. The battery uses a sodium-sulfur (NaS) chemistry and has been commercially available since 2002, used in 530MW of deployed projects at grid-scale globally.
The Conext Core XC ES is a series of central inverters designed for high efficiency and flexibility for battery-based energy storage systems — with the series boasting a peak efficiency of 99.1%. NGK commercialised the NAS battery system, which is capable of storing MWs of electricity.
Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 47.344.956 von R-BgO am 21.07.14 14:36:02inzwischen wieder günstiger;
keine Ahnung, warum WO den Kurs vom 28.12.2015 anzeigt...
keine Ahnung, warum WO den Kurs vom 28.12.2015 anzeigt...
nach jüngstem Anstieg verkauft
40.000 Yen sind ca. 300 Euro...:
Sumitomo, NGK Picked for Project to Cut Energy Storage Costs
By Chisaki Watanabe - Sep 2, 2013 9:10 AM GMT+0200
NGK Insulators Ltd. (5333) and a group led by Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (5802) were picked for a project aimed at reducing the cost of storage systems that can help integrate clean energy onto the grid.
Japan’s government will pay the companies as much as 75 percent of development costs, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement Aug. 29. The Sumitomo group and NGK will work separately on two different technologies.
“We expect renewable energy to expand once the price of storage batteries becomes lower and installations increase,” NGK said in a statement.
Japan is promoting energy storage amid an increasing need to improve power grids to deal with intermittent power from the sun and wind after introducing an incentive program last year. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is also pushing storage batteries for export.
The government has set a goal of cutting the cost to install systems to store excess energy from renewable sources to 23,000 yen ($234) per kilowatt hour within seven years. That’s the same as the average cost for pumped hydropower.
Participants will receive financial support for five years through March 2018, according to the ministry’s website. They’ll be asked to return part or all of the subsidies depending on their progress by March 2021.
The ministry has set aside 2.7 billion yen for the fiscal year through March 31 for the project, ministry official Takatsune Ito said in a phone interview last week.
Hokkaido Grid Congestion
A ministry report released last year said sodium-sulfur batteries, the type made by NGK, cost 40,000 yen per kilowatt hour[/b].
The Nagoya-based company has been trying to reduce cost through automating the manufacturing process and improving product performance, spokeswoman Aki Sawafuji said on Aug. 29.
Sumitomo Electric, based in Osaka, develops batteries which use the metal vanadium to store electrical energy in electrolyte tanks.
The company can’t comment on the cost of a system using the technology because it isn’t commercialized yet, Mitsuyo Tsuruta, a spokeswoman, said by phone on Aug. 30.
Tsuruta declined to comment on the two other companies Sumitomo will work with on the project.
In July, Sumitomo was picked to supply a battery system with 60-megawatt hours of storage capacity to a substation operated by Hokkaido Electric Power Co. as part of a trade ministry program to stabilize the flow of wind and solar power in northern Japan.
Sumitomo, NGK Picked for Project to Cut Energy Storage Costs
By Chisaki Watanabe - Sep 2, 2013 9:10 AM GMT+0200
NGK Insulators Ltd. (5333) and a group led by Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (5802) were picked for a project aimed at reducing the cost of storage systems that can help integrate clean energy onto the grid.
Japan’s government will pay the companies as much as 75 percent of development costs, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement Aug. 29. The Sumitomo group and NGK will work separately on two different technologies.
“We expect renewable energy to expand once the price of storage batteries becomes lower and installations increase,” NGK said in a statement.
Japan is promoting energy storage amid an increasing need to improve power grids to deal with intermittent power from the sun and wind after introducing an incentive program last year. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is also pushing storage batteries for export.
The government has set a goal of cutting the cost to install systems to store excess energy from renewable sources to 23,000 yen ($234) per kilowatt hour within seven years. That’s the same as the average cost for pumped hydropower.
Participants will receive financial support for five years through March 2018, according to the ministry’s website. They’ll be asked to return part or all of the subsidies depending on their progress by March 2021.
The ministry has set aside 2.7 billion yen for the fiscal year through March 31 for the project, ministry official Takatsune Ito said in a phone interview last week.
Hokkaido Grid Congestion
A ministry report released last year said sodium-sulfur batteries, the type made by NGK, cost 40,000 yen per kilowatt hour[/b].
The Nagoya-based company has been trying to reduce cost through automating the manufacturing process and improving product performance, spokeswoman Aki Sawafuji said on Aug. 29.
Sumitomo Electric, based in Osaka, develops batteries which use the metal vanadium to store electrical energy in electrolyte tanks.
The company can’t comment on the cost of a system using the technology because it isn’t commercialized yet, Mitsuyo Tsuruta, a spokeswoman, said by phone on Aug. 30.
Tsuruta declined to comment on the two other companies Sumitomo will work with on the project.
In July, Sumitomo was picked to supply a battery system with 60-megawatt hours of storage capacity to a substation operated by Hokkaido Electric Power Co. as part of a trade ministry program to stabilize the flow of wind and solar power in northern Japan.
Release: April 25, 2012
NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
NGK Developed GaN Wafer for Ultra High Brightness LEDs
NGK Insulators, Ltd. (President: Taro Kato; Headquarters: Nagoya, Japan) has announced it has developed gallium nitride (GaN) wafers that double luminous efficiency of a LED light source compared to conventional materials.
Created with original liquid phase epitaxial growth technology, NGK's GaN wafer has low defect density and colorless transparency over the whole wafer surface.
With the assistance of a research institute outside the Company, a light emitting test was performed on a LED element using NGK's GaN wafer. The test showed a world top class internal quantum efficiency of 90% at an injection current of 200mA. The GaN wafer achieves a luminous efficiency of 200lm/W, which is twice as efficient as those on the market today. Under the same brightness, this reduces power consumption by 50%. Since the wafer reduces heat generation within LEDs, it lengthens lifetime of LEDs and enables downsizing of lighting equipment.
NGK established a new department named "Wafer Project" this month, aiming at prompt commercializing of wafer products. Within 2012 the Company will launch the shipment of sample products of 4-inch-diameter GaN wafer, which is the world's first 4-inch-diameter GaN wafer produced with the liquid phase epitaxial growth technology. NGK is accelerating the development of GaN wafers with lower defect density and of larger diameter (6 inches), aiming at the market for wafers to be used for power devices for hybrid cars, electric vehicles and power amplifiers for cellular base stations. The GaN wafer is optimum for such applications, taking advantage of its features including high breakdown voltage, high frequency operation, etc.
LED element under light emitting test
Substrate size: 1cm square, Element size: 0.3mm square
Injection current: approx. 200mA, Center wavelength: 450nm
GaN wafers (left: 2 inches, right: 4 inches)
* Internal quantum efficiency: Ratio of the number of electrons (current) injected into LED to the number of photons generated in the emission layer. The ratio is dependent on crystal defect density in the emission layer and the ideal ratio is 100%. The ratio of LED elements on the market today is 30 to 40 percent at the injection current of 200mA.
NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
NGK Developed GaN Wafer for Ultra High Brightness LEDs
NGK Insulators, Ltd. (President: Taro Kato; Headquarters: Nagoya, Japan) has announced it has developed gallium nitride (GaN) wafers that double luminous efficiency of a LED light source compared to conventional materials.
Created with original liquid phase epitaxial growth technology, NGK's GaN wafer has low defect density and colorless transparency over the whole wafer surface.
With the assistance of a research institute outside the Company, a light emitting test was performed on a LED element using NGK's GaN wafer. The test showed a world top class internal quantum efficiency of 90% at an injection current of 200mA. The GaN wafer achieves a luminous efficiency of 200lm/W, which is twice as efficient as those on the market today. Under the same brightness, this reduces power consumption by 50%. Since the wafer reduces heat generation within LEDs, it lengthens lifetime of LEDs and enables downsizing of lighting equipment.
NGK established a new department named "Wafer Project" this month, aiming at prompt commercializing of wafer products. Within 2012 the Company will launch the shipment of sample products of 4-inch-diameter GaN wafer, which is the world's first 4-inch-diameter GaN wafer produced with the liquid phase epitaxial growth technology. NGK is accelerating the development of GaN wafers with lower defect density and of larger diameter (6 inches), aiming at the market for wafers to be used for power devices for hybrid cars, electric vehicles and power amplifiers for cellular base stations. The GaN wafer is optimum for such applications, taking advantage of its features including high breakdown voltage, high frequency operation, etc.
LED element under light emitting test
Substrate size: 1cm square, Element size: 0.3mm square
Injection current: approx. 200mA, Center wavelength: 450nm
GaN wafers (left: 2 inches, right: 4 inches)
* Internal quantum efficiency: Ratio of the number of electrons (current) injected into LED to the number of photons generated in the emission layer. The ratio is dependent on crystal defect density in the emission layer and the ideal ratio is 100%. The ratio of LED elements on the market today is 30 to 40 percent at the injection current of 200mA.
dem Kurs gefällt das heute nicht:
NGK Responds to News Reports Today
Certain news media today carried reports concerning a fire related to NAS batteries on September 21 citing the Company's website (in Japanese). NGK INSULATORS, LTD. did not make this news announcement.
NGK deeply regrets any worry or inconvenience to customers, local authorities and residents caused by the fire involving NAS batteries.
At present, the fire authorities are investigating the cause of the fire. As the Company reported previously, NGK formed an Accident Investigation Committee (chaired by Takeyuki Mizuno, Director and Senior Vice President) on September 21, which is looking into the cause of the fire and measures to prevent a reoccurrence. However, this investigation will take some time.
NAS batteries are a mega watt-class electricity storage system and NGK was first in the world to commercialize them. Featuring large capacity and high energy density, NAS batteries help with load leveling at times of peak demand and stabilizing intermittent renewable energy, contributing to power-saving measures, reduced energy costs and lower environmental loads. Customers have shown strong interest in these products. However, until the Company identifies the cause of the recent fire and formulates measures to prevent a reoccurrence, NGK is placing top priority on safety and therefore asks customers to temporarily stop using NAS batteries in existing facilities as a precautionary measure. At the same time, NGK will respond to individual customer's circumstances regarding new shipments. NGK apologizes for any inconvenience to customers.
NGK is presently looking at the impact of the fire on its operating results, and will promptly make another announcement if there is the possibility of damages or if it is necessary to revise business forecasts.
NGK Responds to News Reports Today
Certain news media today carried reports concerning a fire related to NAS batteries on September 21 citing the Company's website (in Japanese). NGK INSULATORS, LTD. did not make this news announcement.
NGK deeply regrets any worry or inconvenience to customers, local authorities and residents caused by the fire involving NAS batteries.
At present, the fire authorities are investigating the cause of the fire. As the Company reported previously, NGK formed an Accident Investigation Committee (chaired by Takeyuki Mizuno, Director and Senior Vice President) on September 21, which is looking into the cause of the fire and measures to prevent a reoccurrence. However, this investigation will take some time.
NAS batteries are a mega watt-class electricity storage system and NGK was first in the world to commercialize them. Featuring large capacity and high energy density, NAS batteries help with load leveling at times of peak demand and stabilizing intermittent renewable energy, contributing to power-saving measures, reduced energy costs and lower environmental loads. Customers have shown strong interest in these products. However, until the Company identifies the cause of the recent fire and formulates measures to prevent a reoccurrence, NGK is placing top priority on safety and therefore asks customers to temporarily stop using NAS batteries in existing facilities as a precautionary measure. At the same time, NGK will respond to individual customer's circumstances regarding new shipments. NGK apologizes for any inconvenience to customers.
NGK is presently looking at the impact of the fire on its operating results, and will promptly make another announcement if there is the possibility of damages or if it is necessary to revise business forecasts.
Molten Metal Batteries Return for Renewable Energy Storage
New ideas for making sodium sulfur batteries could make them the answer for taming the variability of wind and solar power
By Peter Behr and ClimateWire | Monday, February 28, 2011 | 6
The Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Farm NOT ALWAYS BLOWING IN THE WIND: Energy storage is crucial to handle the intermittent nature of wind power. Image: Courtesy Energy.gov
Advertisement
EaglePicher Technologies, a manufacturer of specialized batteries for military and space programs, is partnered with the federal government to develop a powerful battery storage technology to help utilities smooth out the ups and downs of renewable power.
It's a familiar path for the Joplin, Mo., company.
EaglePicher began developing a battery for space applications in the mid-1980s that used sodium and sulfur components. Its model performed successfully on the Columbia space shuttle in 1997.
But by then, the focus for military and space batteries had shifted to lithium-ion models in the United States and the impetus for a sodium sulfur battery vanished in this country. EaglePicher mothballed its work.
Now EaglePicher is back in the game, working on a sodium sulfur battery with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), backed by a $7.2 million grant from the Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). It was one of 37 such awards made in 2009 to foster clean energy breakthroughs. EaglePicher is funding the $1.8 million balance of the three-year project.
With Energy Department research and development budgets facing an uncertain future in Congress, the future for such clean energy partnerships is also uncertain. This week, ARPA-E will show off its grantees at the 2011 Innovation Summit in Washington, bringing together scientists, venture capital funders and elected officials in a bid for political support for President Obama's goal of producing 80 percent of the U.S. electricity supply from clean energy sources by 2035.
PNNL estimates that more than 200,000 megawatt-hours of power from energy storage would be needed in 2030 if the United States were to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources then. The concept is to store electricity made from renewable energy when it is in surplus -- such as wind energy at night -- and use it during during peak demand periods during the day.
The characteristics of sodium sulfur batteries are well-suited for that. While the technology was pioneered in this country, but then abandoned, Japan saw the promise and picked it up. Its Ministry of International Trade and Industry chose it as a targeted opportunity.
Japan takes the idea and runs with it
Tokyo Electric Power Co. and NGK Insulators pushed sodium sulfur development in the 1990s, and today, NGK is the primary commercial manufacturer. U.S. utilities seeking large storage batteries for renewable energy can face a wait of a year or more.
It amounts to the second big battery technology fumble the United States has been involved with. The technology that underpins the ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries in consumer electronics products was invented by American physicist John Goodenough in the late 1970s, helped by a $20,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force. Ignored by U.S. manufacturers, it was commercialized by Sony and other Japanese companies in the 1990s.
PNNL scientist and project coordinator Gordon Graff says the laboratory's partnership with EaglePicher seeks to leapfrog NGK's design to perfect a more compact architecture that could significantly boost the battery's efficiency and performance while also greatly simplifying the manufacturing process.
"This is a radical change in design," said Graff, who holds 22 patents. "This is one of the ways we can make this step jump."
In the PNNL facility in Richland, Wash., Graff hefts one of the NGK batteries as he explains the opportunities that PNNL and EaglePicher team hope to exploit.
The NGK battery is a cylinder with sodium in the center, separated from molten sulfur by a ceramic membrane that allows the passage of sodium ions to create the battery's current. The tubular design of the NGK membrane and casings simplifies maintaining a secure seal on the volatile chemicals within the battery, whose internal temperature reaches 350 degrees Celsius.
If the battery can be made instead with a flat, planar membrane encased in a box-like structure, the battery could deliver more power, at lower temperatures, and would be sturdier and be far simpler to mass produce, says David Lucero, who directs EaglePicher's advanced battery project. "We think the planar design could increase performance by 30 percent, getting more energy in a smaller package," said Lucero.
Reinventing a reinvention
"You should be able to get roughly a 25 to 30 percent reduction in costs because it's so much easier to manufacture sheets of materials than closed-end tubes," Graff said. The membrane that separates sodium and sulfur components can be made much thinner in the flattened design, he added.
Like other ARPA-E funded projects, this one is no sure thing.
"There are many problems," Graff said. "One of the biggest ones is seals. In this geometry, all you have to seal is the top lip," he said, holding up the NGK model. A fail-safe seal is harder to achieve in the flattened design, he said. "Why would you even attack that?" Graff asked. Because the lab has been working on planar designs for 15 years, he said, answering his own question.
Most of the first year's work was basic research at PNNL. "As we begin year two, we are transferring the work here, to scale up to the final demonstration," Lucero said. The team is pleased with the progress made so far, but there are still risks.
"We're doing very, very well," Graff said. The goal for PNNL and EaglePicher is to deliver a 5-kilowatt battery producing 10 kilowatt-hours of energy by the end of 2012.
ARPA-E has set milestones for each stage of the project, Lucero said. "The project is reviewed on a quarterly basis to make certain the development is advancing satisfactorily. These are very aggressive go-no go types of metrics that we have to achieve.
"ARPA-E is not doing science for science's sake," Lucero added. "They wanted a science-industry partnership product technology that has a better chance of being utilized. There is a cost share to make sure that the industry partner has skin in the game."
The ARPA-E funding should allow for the completion of the three-year demonstration project, PNNL says. Then, if the technology challenges are met, the future of this sodium sulfur battery is likely to be determined by intersecting policy and market forces, including the size and growth of the renewable power industry and the availability of hundreds of millions of dollars in capital to eventually to move to commercial production.
It's happened before. "In the mid-90s, NGK made significant investments developing the technology so they could commercialize it," Lucero said. "They were pretty visionary."
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
New ideas for making sodium sulfur batteries could make them the answer for taming the variability of wind and solar power
By Peter Behr and ClimateWire | Monday, February 28, 2011 | 6
The Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Farm NOT ALWAYS BLOWING IN THE WIND: Energy storage is crucial to handle the intermittent nature of wind power. Image: Courtesy Energy.gov
Advertisement
EaglePicher Technologies, a manufacturer of specialized batteries for military and space programs, is partnered with the federal government to develop a powerful battery storage technology to help utilities smooth out the ups and downs of renewable power.
It's a familiar path for the Joplin, Mo., company.
EaglePicher began developing a battery for space applications in the mid-1980s that used sodium and sulfur components. Its model performed successfully on the Columbia space shuttle in 1997.
But by then, the focus for military and space batteries had shifted to lithium-ion models in the United States and the impetus for a sodium sulfur battery vanished in this country. EaglePicher mothballed its work.
Now EaglePicher is back in the game, working on a sodium sulfur battery with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), backed by a $7.2 million grant from the Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). It was one of 37 such awards made in 2009 to foster clean energy breakthroughs. EaglePicher is funding the $1.8 million balance of the three-year project.
With Energy Department research and development budgets facing an uncertain future in Congress, the future for such clean energy partnerships is also uncertain. This week, ARPA-E will show off its grantees at the 2011 Innovation Summit in Washington, bringing together scientists, venture capital funders and elected officials in a bid for political support for President Obama's goal of producing 80 percent of the U.S. electricity supply from clean energy sources by 2035.
PNNL estimates that more than 200,000 megawatt-hours of power from energy storage would be needed in 2030 if the United States were to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources then. The concept is to store electricity made from renewable energy when it is in surplus -- such as wind energy at night -- and use it during during peak demand periods during the day.
The characteristics of sodium sulfur batteries are well-suited for that. While the technology was pioneered in this country, but then abandoned, Japan saw the promise and picked it up. Its Ministry of International Trade and Industry chose it as a targeted opportunity.
Japan takes the idea and runs with it
Tokyo Electric Power Co. and NGK Insulators pushed sodium sulfur development in the 1990s, and today, NGK is the primary commercial manufacturer. U.S. utilities seeking large storage batteries for renewable energy can face a wait of a year or more.
It amounts to the second big battery technology fumble the United States has been involved with. The technology that underpins the ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries in consumer electronics products was invented by American physicist John Goodenough in the late 1970s, helped by a $20,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force. Ignored by U.S. manufacturers, it was commercialized by Sony and other Japanese companies in the 1990s.
PNNL scientist and project coordinator Gordon Graff says the laboratory's partnership with EaglePicher seeks to leapfrog NGK's design to perfect a more compact architecture that could significantly boost the battery's efficiency and performance while also greatly simplifying the manufacturing process.
"This is a radical change in design," said Graff, who holds 22 patents. "This is one of the ways we can make this step jump."
In the PNNL facility in Richland, Wash., Graff hefts one of the NGK batteries as he explains the opportunities that PNNL and EaglePicher team hope to exploit.
The NGK battery is a cylinder with sodium in the center, separated from molten sulfur by a ceramic membrane that allows the passage of sodium ions to create the battery's current. The tubular design of the NGK membrane and casings simplifies maintaining a secure seal on the volatile chemicals within the battery, whose internal temperature reaches 350 degrees Celsius.
If the battery can be made instead with a flat, planar membrane encased in a box-like structure, the battery could deliver more power, at lower temperatures, and would be sturdier and be far simpler to mass produce, says David Lucero, who directs EaglePicher's advanced battery project. "We think the planar design could increase performance by 30 percent, getting more energy in a smaller package," said Lucero.
Reinventing a reinvention
"You should be able to get roughly a 25 to 30 percent reduction in costs because it's so much easier to manufacture sheets of materials than closed-end tubes," Graff said. The membrane that separates sodium and sulfur components can be made much thinner in the flattened design, he added.
Like other ARPA-E funded projects, this one is no sure thing.
"There are many problems," Graff said. "One of the biggest ones is seals. In this geometry, all you have to seal is the top lip," he said, holding up the NGK model. A fail-safe seal is harder to achieve in the flattened design, he said. "Why would you even attack that?" Graff asked. Because the lab has been working on planar designs for 15 years, he said, answering his own question.
Most of the first year's work was basic research at PNNL. "As we begin year two, we are transferring the work here, to scale up to the final demonstration," Lucero said. The team is pleased with the progress made so far, but there are still risks.
"We're doing very, very well," Graff said. The goal for PNNL and EaglePicher is to deliver a 5-kilowatt battery producing 10 kilowatt-hours of energy by the end of 2012.
ARPA-E has set milestones for each stage of the project, Lucero said. "The project is reviewed on a quarterly basis to make certain the development is advancing satisfactorily. These are very aggressive go-no go types of metrics that we have to achieve.
"ARPA-E is not doing science for science's sake," Lucero added. "They wanted a science-industry partnership product technology that has a better chance of being utilized. There is a cost share to make sure that the industry partner has skin in the game."
The ARPA-E funding should allow for the completion of the three-year demonstration project, PNNL says. Then, if the technology challenges are met, the future of this sodium sulfur battery is likely to be determined by intersecting policy and market forces, including the size and growth of the renewable power industry and the availability of hundreds of millions of dollars in capital to eventually to move to commercial production.
It's happened before. "In the mid-90s, NGK made significant investments developing the technology so they could commercialize it," Lucero said. "They were pretty visionary."
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
inzwischen aufgestockt und ins anlageportfolio übernommen; sie scheinen weltweit die einzigen zu sein, die NaS Batterien kommerziell anbieten
Herman K. Trabish: August 6, 2010
Xcel Shows it Can Catch the Wind in a Big Battery
Utility’s test results prove wind power and solar power can work better with a battery.
Xcel Energy has taken a big step toward the pot of gold at the end of the battery storage of renewable energy rainbow with the successful testing of a battery big enough to store wind power-generated electricity for 500 homes.
"This is critical technology," Forbes Black, a battery technology and energy storage systems engineer, said of Xcel's work. "We're going to have to figure out ways to store energy for when renewables are not generating and this sounds like a really good step in that direction."
Xcel is testing a sodium sulfur (NaS) battery at an 11-megawatt (MW) wind farm near Luverne, Minnesota. The 80-ton battery made by NGK Insulators Ltd. of Japan is a constellation of twenty 50-kilowatt modules the size of two semi trailers. It stores 7.2 megawatt-hours of electricity in total and can instantly absorb or generate one megawatt of power.
The sodium sulfur battery, Black observed, is likely both simple and inexpensive. The key, he said, "is storing the most kilowatt-hours per dollar that you possibly can. You need big cheap batteries."
"My doubts," he added, "are scale-related. I am not sure any battery technology right now can be used for grid-scale energy storage. There is a huge expense related to that."
Frank Novachek, Xcel Energy's Director of Corporate Planning and the manager of the wind-to-battery storage project, explained how the preliminary results of the field test that began in October 2008 unequivocally prove the technical capability of the batteries to store wind. They also confirm Black's doubts.
"We don't know what the right battery price is," Novachek said about the use of battery storage for shifting wind energy from off-peak availability (when electricity is least expensive) to peak demand availability (when electricity is most expensive). "But we do know it's too high for looking at the time-shifting aspects alone."
But time shifting is only one of battery storage's many uses. Deferring the need for a transmission/distribution system upgrade is a much more cost-effective application, according to Novachek. Renewable capacity is going to waste and being left uninstalled in resource-rich places around the U.S. because new transmission is so expensive and red-tape-intensive. But, in West Virginia, AEP, Novachek said, has relieved a distribution bottleneck sufficiently to have deferred the need for new wires through the use of a one-megawatt sodium sulfur battery.
Battery storage is also cost-effective when it is used to ease wind's variability. "You use the battery to slow down any changes in the output of the wind farm," Novachek explained. A small amount of instantly available capacity allows more time for secondary generation sources to ramp. "If the wind picks up really quickly, the battery would start charging," he said. "If the wind drops off, you use the battery to discharge to the grid."
There are other ways grid operators can use battery storage to integrate wind and solar more efficiently into the transmission system. One is a crucial but very technical use of battery storage that has to do with balancing voltage. Another is the precise mixing of battery-stored electricity into minute-by-minute grid supply fluctuations.
Xcel and its partners at the University of Minnesota have only just begun to understand the ideal ratio of battery storage capability to total project capacity needed for effective ramp rate control. "It's somewhere between one and five megawatts for this wind farm," Novachek said of the ratio derived from the eleven-megawatt Minnesota wind farm field test. "We were only able to test one- and five-megawatt capacities. I think it's probably closer to one. I don't think you need half the size of the wind farm."
The right ratio also depends on what the project and grid operators want the storage to accomplish.
"In Japan," Novachek explained, "NGK -- the people who provided our sodium sulfur battery -- have a facility where they have a 30-megawatt battery tied to a 50-megawatt wind farm."
The Japanese transmission system does not integrate wind and other variable renewables like the U.S. system will. "The island's grid system will only accept power if it's guaranteed at a constant output," Novachek said. "So they charge the batteries at night and then they use the batteries for a constant output during the day. As the wind goes down and up, the batteries go up and down to make sure the sum of their output is constant."
In the U.S., as long as there is a mix of fossil, nuclear and renewable energies being integrated, grid operators will be more concerned with controlling the rate at which the electricity supply changes from one source to another. "If you can control the rate of change to where the overall system can respond," Novachek said, "that will facilitate wind integration."
The most sophisticated uses of battery storage will come, Novachek contends, when wind and the other renewables are "somewhere greater than 30 percent" of the power on the grid. That allows for the several years Novachek foresees as still necessary to study the technology, understand its parameters and bring down the costs about which Black was rightly concerned.
"The functionality is there to do the things we need to have done for both solar and wind variability," Novachek said. "The big issues out there now are the technical issues associated with getting the cost down." He isn't certain when that can happen. "Every situation is going to have its own price point."
Xcel Shows it Can Catch the Wind in a Big Battery
Utility’s test results prove wind power and solar power can work better with a battery.
Xcel Energy has taken a big step toward the pot of gold at the end of the battery storage of renewable energy rainbow with the successful testing of a battery big enough to store wind power-generated electricity for 500 homes.
"This is critical technology," Forbes Black, a battery technology and energy storage systems engineer, said of Xcel's work. "We're going to have to figure out ways to store energy for when renewables are not generating and this sounds like a really good step in that direction."
Xcel is testing a sodium sulfur (NaS) battery at an 11-megawatt (MW) wind farm near Luverne, Minnesota. The 80-ton battery made by NGK Insulators Ltd. of Japan is a constellation of twenty 50-kilowatt modules the size of two semi trailers. It stores 7.2 megawatt-hours of electricity in total and can instantly absorb or generate one megawatt of power.
The sodium sulfur battery, Black observed, is likely both simple and inexpensive. The key, he said, "is storing the most kilowatt-hours per dollar that you possibly can. You need big cheap batteries."
"My doubts," he added, "are scale-related. I am not sure any battery technology right now can be used for grid-scale energy storage. There is a huge expense related to that."
Frank Novachek, Xcel Energy's Director of Corporate Planning and the manager of the wind-to-battery storage project, explained how the preliminary results of the field test that began in October 2008 unequivocally prove the technical capability of the batteries to store wind. They also confirm Black's doubts.
"We don't know what the right battery price is," Novachek said about the use of battery storage for shifting wind energy from off-peak availability (when electricity is least expensive) to peak demand availability (when electricity is most expensive). "But we do know it's too high for looking at the time-shifting aspects alone."
But time shifting is only one of battery storage's many uses. Deferring the need for a transmission/distribution system upgrade is a much more cost-effective application, according to Novachek. Renewable capacity is going to waste and being left uninstalled in resource-rich places around the U.S. because new transmission is so expensive and red-tape-intensive. But, in West Virginia, AEP, Novachek said, has relieved a distribution bottleneck sufficiently to have deferred the need for new wires through the use of a one-megawatt sodium sulfur battery.
Battery storage is also cost-effective when it is used to ease wind's variability. "You use the battery to slow down any changes in the output of the wind farm," Novachek explained. A small amount of instantly available capacity allows more time for secondary generation sources to ramp. "If the wind picks up really quickly, the battery would start charging," he said. "If the wind drops off, you use the battery to discharge to the grid."
There are other ways grid operators can use battery storage to integrate wind and solar more efficiently into the transmission system. One is a crucial but very technical use of battery storage that has to do with balancing voltage. Another is the precise mixing of battery-stored electricity into minute-by-minute grid supply fluctuations.
Xcel and its partners at the University of Minnesota have only just begun to understand the ideal ratio of battery storage capability to total project capacity needed for effective ramp rate control. "It's somewhere between one and five megawatts for this wind farm," Novachek said of the ratio derived from the eleven-megawatt Minnesota wind farm field test. "We were only able to test one- and five-megawatt capacities. I think it's probably closer to one. I don't think you need half the size of the wind farm."
The right ratio also depends on what the project and grid operators want the storage to accomplish.
"In Japan," Novachek explained, "NGK -- the people who provided our sodium sulfur battery -- have a facility where they have a 30-megawatt battery tied to a 50-megawatt wind farm."
The Japanese transmission system does not integrate wind and other variable renewables like the U.S. system will. "The island's grid system will only accept power if it's guaranteed at a constant output," Novachek said. "So they charge the batteries at night and then they use the batteries for a constant output during the day. As the wind goes down and up, the batteries go up and down to make sure the sum of their output is constant."
In the U.S., as long as there is a mix of fossil, nuclear and renewable energies being integrated, grid operators will be more concerned with controlling the rate at which the electricity supply changes from one source to another. "If you can control the rate of change to where the overall system can respond," Novachek said, "that will facilitate wind integration."
The most sophisticated uses of battery storage will come, Novachek contends, when wind and the other renewables are "somewhere greater than 30 percent" of the power on the grid. That allows for the several years Novachek foresees as still necessary to study the technology, understand its parameters and bring down the costs about which Black was rightly concerned.
"The functionality is there to do the things we need to have done for both solar and wind variability," Novachek said. "The big issues out there now are the technical issues associated with getting the cost down." He isn't certain when that can happen. "Every situation is going to have its own price point."
interessant für smart-Grid:
Sodium sulphur NAS battery asset development agreed, announces consortium
A consortium that includes EDF Energy and NGK Insulators, Ltd with MEIDEN and JWD has signed an initial agreement to develop large scale sodium sulphur NAS battery assets to provide ancillary services in the UK.
Large-scale NAS battery systems have been used in several locations across the world to store energy and provide various applications such as load levelling, stabilising renewable energy and the grid system and will be able to do so for many years to come.
The consortium is working on the development of a demonstration project before seeking to apply the technology more widely.
Martin Lawrence, Managing Director, Energy Sourcing and Customer Supply at EDF Energy, said: "EDF Energy is delighted to be working with NGK, bringing their skills and experience to the UK’s energy market. This agreement is a significant and exciting step in the development and potential use of this technology.
As the UK’s largest generator of low-carbon electricity, EDF Energy has a major role to play in the UK power market. This innovative solution will provide energy and a secure supply as well as help to maintain a robust grid during periods of high demand."
NGK said, "We are honoured to be working with EDF Energy to deploy the NAS battery in this innovative project. We look forward to this first installation of the NAS battery in UK. By linking our battery knowledge with EDF Energy's understanding of the British power market, we intend to demonstrate the value of reserve services supplied by a battery, instead of using conventional generating plant."
EDF Energy contacts:
Rajan Lakhani, Senior Media Manager: +44 207 752 2196
rajan.lakhani@edfenergy.com
NGK Insulators contact:
Matsunaga, Satoh, Public Relations: +81-52-872-7181
pr-office@ngk.co.jp
Notes to Editors
UK Ancillary Market
Ancillary Services are specialist technical services provided by companies with plant connected to the national grid which facilitate a smooth operation of the energy network. In the UK, power generation, transmission and distribution companies are separate. The energy is traded between market players on the basis of bilateral contracts. In order to ensure a balanced system the gird operator purchases Ancillary Services provided by both power producers and customers. As European Union places restrictions on the amount of power that can be produced by fossil fuel generation plants in order to reduce CO2 emissions; renewable capacity has been increasing, placing additional balancing needs on the grid. To meet these needs NGK, together with EDF Energy are considering the development of utility scale NAS battery systems which have advantages in terms of quick response import (charge) and export (discharge) modes thus providing power to the grid.
Installed Battery Systems
Sodium Sulphur NAS Batteries allow the development of large scale modules with capacities ranging from 10MW to 100MW. The technology is in service across the world with an installed capacity of just over 300MW. The NAS Battery systems are found to have a proven reliability and safety record.
About EDF Energy
EDF Energy is one of the UK’s largest energy companies. EDF Energy is the UK’s largest producer of electricity and the largest generator of low carbon electricity in Britain. Through Climate and Social Commitments, EDF Energy have launched the biggest environmental and social packages of any UK energy company. EDF Energy produce around one-fifth of the nation's electricity from our nuclear, coal and gas power stations, as well as combined heat and power plants and wind farms. EDF Energy provides power to a quarter of the UK’s population via our electricity distribution networks and supply gas and electricity to over 5.5 million business and residential customers. EDF Energy is a key player in national infrastructure projects including the management of private electricity networks serving four London airports and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. EDF Energy has recently published plans to build up to four new nuclear power stations in the UK. EDF Energy integrated with British Energy in 2009 and we now employ nearly 20,000 people at locations across the UK. EDF Energy is part of EDF Group, one of Europe’s largest power companies. EDF is the official energy utilities partner and sustainability partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
About NGK
NGK is the world’s largest manufacturer of electrical insulators including 1100 kV ultra high voltage suspension & bushing insulators with a 90 year history. NGK is also one of the largest manufacturers of ceramic HONEYCERAM & DPF (Diesel Particulate Filters) for catalyst converters for automobiles. The NAS battery is produced only by NGK, where 20 years was spent in development before it was released for commercial applications. NGK has outstanding agreements to supply 150MW NAS battery system to EDF Energy Nouvelles France and 300 MW to Abu Dhabi over the next 5 years.
Sodium sulphur NAS battery asset development agreed, announces consortium
A consortium that includes EDF Energy and NGK Insulators, Ltd with MEIDEN and JWD has signed an initial agreement to develop large scale sodium sulphur NAS battery assets to provide ancillary services in the UK.
Large-scale NAS battery systems have been used in several locations across the world to store energy and provide various applications such as load levelling, stabilising renewable energy and the grid system and will be able to do so for many years to come.
The consortium is working on the development of a demonstration project before seeking to apply the technology more widely.
Martin Lawrence, Managing Director, Energy Sourcing and Customer Supply at EDF Energy, said: "EDF Energy is delighted to be working with NGK, bringing their skills and experience to the UK’s energy market. This agreement is a significant and exciting step in the development and potential use of this technology.
As the UK’s largest generator of low-carbon electricity, EDF Energy has a major role to play in the UK power market. This innovative solution will provide energy and a secure supply as well as help to maintain a robust grid during periods of high demand."
NGK said, "We are honoured to be working with EDF Energy to deploy the NAS battery in this innovative project. We look forward to this first installation of the NAS battery in UK. By linking our battery knowledge with EDF Energy's understanding of the British power market, we intend to demonstrate the value of reserve services supplied by a battery, instead of using conventional generating plant."
EDF Energy contacts:
Rajan Lakhani, Senior Media Manager: +44 207 752 2196
rajan.lakhani@edfenergy.com
NGK Insulators contact:
Matsunaga, Satoh, Public Relations: +81-52-872-7181
pr-office@ngk.co.jp
Notes to Editors
UK Ancillary Market
Ancillary Services are specialist technical services provided by companies with plant connected to the national grid which facilitate a smooth operation of the energy network. In the UK, power generation, transmission and distribution companies are separate. The energy is traded between market players on the basis of bilateral contracts. In order to ensure a balanced system the gird operator purchases Ancillary Services provided by both power producers and customers. As European Union places restrictions on the amount of power that can be produced by fossil fuel generation plants in order to reduce CO2 emissions; renewable capacity has been increasing, placing additional balancing needs on the grid. To meet these needs NGK, together with EDF Energy are considering the development of utility scale NAS battery systems which have advantages in terms of quick response import (charge) and export (discharge) modes thus providing power to the grid.
Installed Battery Systems
Sodium Sulphur NAS Batteries allow the development of large scale modules with capacities ranging from 10MW to 100MW. The technology is in service across the world with an installed capacity of just over 300MW. The NAS Battery systems are found to have a proven reliability and safety record.
About EDF Energy
EDF Energy is one of the UK’s largest energy companies. EDF Energy is the UK’s largest producer of electricity and the largest generator of low carbon electricity in Britain. Through Climate and Social Commitments, EDF Energy have launched the biggest environmental and social packages of any UK energy company. EDF Energy produce around one-fifth of the nation's electricity from our nuclear, coal and gas power stations, as well as combined heat and power plants and wind farms. EDF Energy provides power to a quarter of the UK’s population via our electricity distribution networks and supply gas and electricity to over 5.5 million business and residential customers. EDF Energy is a key player in national infrastructure projects including the management of private electricity networks serving four London airports and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. EDF Energy has recently published plans to build up to four new nuclear power stations in the UK. EDF Energy integrated with British Energy in 2009 and we now employ nearly 20,000 people at locations across the UK. EDF Energy is part of EDF Group, one of Europe’s largest power companies. EDF is the official energy utilities partner and sustainability partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
About NGK
NGK is the world’s largest manufacturer of electrical insulators including 1100 kV ultra high voltage suspension & bushing insulators with a 90 year history. NGK is also one of the largest manufacturers of ceramic HONEYCERAM & DPF (Diesel Particulate Filters) for catalyst converters for automobiles. The NAS battery is produced only by NGK, where 20 years was spent in development before it was released for commercial applications. NGK has outstanding agreements to supply 150MW NAS battery system to EDF Energy Nouvelles France and 300 MW to Abu Dhabi over the next 5 years.
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