Watts In Store - Storing Renewable Energy

Watts In Store - Storing Renewable Energy

Essential research for anyone addressing one of the key challenges of today’s energy market – storing renewable energy.

Report Contents.


Storage solutions for renewable energy providers.
Overcoming intermittence.
Legacy energy storage solutions find a new market.
Biofuels versus hydrogen fuel cells in the automotive sector.
Energy storage within 'Urban Heat Islands'.

Approximately 900 KWh of solar energy falls on each square metre of Europe and the USA each year. However this energy is diffuse and intermittent and tends to arrive and accumulate in the wrong place at the wrong time.

High energy prices are supporting the growth of renewable energy solutions, which in turn are stimulating the market for a wide range of energy storage technologies that can be deployed to overcome the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources.

Oil and coal are themselves stores of energy and bio fuels and hydrogen have the potential to move into this space. As in the early days of the oil industry, players with the infrastructure to store and distribute energy will dominate the renewable energy sector.

Bio fuels and hydrogen fuel cells will fight each other for market share within the automotive sector while fuel cells will also carve out a niche market within the residential energy sector.

This report examines the opportunities for technology vendors and nextgen energy companies in the renewable energy storage market. Also considered is the business case for energy storage and distribution within 'Urban Heat Islands'.

Companies in this report include:-

D1 Oils, Wind Hydrogen, Ballard Power Systems, Ooms and Pentadyne.

Technologies examined in this report include:-

Hydro storage, phase change materials, rock and water based geothermal systems, batteries, fuel cells, biofuels as energy stores, compressed air and flywheels.

Who should purchase this report:-

Urban planners.
Infrastructure developers.
Next generation energy providers.
Power generators.
Organisations active in the renewable energy market.
Organisations with carbon reduction strategies.
Investors.
Energy strategists and policymakers.

Overview

1 Introduction

2 Wind Energy

3 Solar Energy
3.1 Solar Hot Water Systems
3.2 Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems

4 Geothermal Energy

5 Starting From Scratch

6 Hybrid Systems

7 Community Systems
7.1 Social Housing Initiatives
7.2 Investment Initiatives For Individuals An Developers
7.2.1 Investment By Individuals
7.2.2 Investment By Developers

8 Earning Money From Micro-Generation
Overview

1 Introduction

2 Intermittence

3 Energy Storage Systems

3.1 Electricity Storage

3.1.1 Pumped Hydro
3.1.2 Compressed Air Storage
3.1.3 Batteries
3.1.4 Fuel Cells And Hydrogen
Fuel Cells As Energy Stores
Fuel Cells As Electricity Generators
3.1.5 Flow Batteries
3.1.6 Supercapacitors
3.1.7 Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage
3.1.8 Flywheel Energy Storage

3.2 Thermal Storage

3.2.1 Rock Based
3.2.2 Water Based
Seasonal Thermal Storage
Solar Ponds
3.2.3 Phase Change Material Based

3.3 Fuel From Biomass

4 The Market For Renewable Energy Storage

4.1 Market Inhibitors

4.1.1 Competitors On Both Fronts
4.1.2 Predicting Availability
4.1.3 Improved Grid Architecture

4.2 Market Drivers

4.2.1 Take Your Partners
4.2.2 An Enabling Technology

5 Urban Heat Islands

5.1 Ten Degrees Of Difference
5.2 London Underground – A Man Made Geothermal System
5.3 Micro-climates

6 Conclusions

7 Vendor Profiles

7.1 D1 Oils
7.2 Wind Hydrogen
7.3 Ballard Power Systems
7.4 Ooms
7.5 Pentadyne