One serious drawback of some forms of renewable energy, such as wind or tidal power, has been that they don't conform to peak market demand. Some are intermittent, some work best at off-peak, low-demand hours. What's been missing is a viable means of storing surplus renewable energy production.
A Brit engineer seems to have come up with a solution, liquid air, that is nearly as efficient as conventional battery technology. Water vapour and oxygen are removed from the air. The remaining nitrogen is then super-cooled until it liquifies using off-peak renewable energy production. The liquid nitrogen is later warmed, boiled in effect, as demand warrants, driving electrical generators.
The technology is said to be up to 70% efficient.
5 comments:
Sounds promising. Let's hope this isn't one of those technologies announced with great fanfare but are never heard of again.
cool
Yes it is encouraging and, from a physics context, it makes sense. Finding an effective, high-efficiency and affordable way to store energy off-grid is key to increasing the viability of renewable energy and prying us out of our fossil fuel dependency.
This supports my point that the battle for embracing a green future will be won in the lounges, kitchens and gardens of people's homes. You can't expect people to buy into 1,000,000l capacity hydro-electric plant when they won't buy £29.99 products from WDS Cardiff and the smaller manufacturers.
Water vapour and oxygen are Loft Insulation removed from the air.
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