Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
industrial truck materials handling equipment; emergency and standby
power; portable devices such as tools, toys, lighting; and more significantly,
consumer electronic devices (computers, camcorders, cellular phones). More
recently, secondary batteries have received renewed interest as power sources
for electric and hybrid electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage in a
load leveling mode. Major development programs have been initiated to
improve the performance of existing battery systems and developing new
systems to meet the stringent specifications of these new applications.
The use of battery energy storage in utility applications allows the efficient
use of inexpensive base load energy to provide benefits from peak shaving
and handle many other applications. This reduces utility costs and permits
compliance with environmental regulations. Analyses have determined that
battery energy storage can benefit all sectors of modern utilities: generation,
transmission, distribution, and end use. The use of battery systems for gen-
eration load leveling alone cannot justify the cost of the system. However,
when a single battery system is used for multiple, compatible applications,
such as frequency regulation and spinning reserve, the system economics
are often predicted to be favorable.
Commercially available lead-acid batteries can satisfy the requirements
for certain utility energy storage applications and are currently in use in
several demonstration projects worldwide. Advanced batteries offer still
greater potential for reduced costs and could enable market opportunities
to be enhanced. These opportunities result from the predicted advantages
of advanced batteries for lower cost, smaller system footprint, no mainte-
nance, and high reliability even when used with highly variable duty cycles.
Battery storage provides significant benefits in solar, wind, and other renew-
able generation systems where energy sources are intermittent. The batteries
are charged when the source generates energy and the energy can then be
discharged when the source is not available. Operating characteristics vary
widely, depending on application. For photovoltaic systems, typical appli-
cations include village power, telemetry, telecommunications, powering
remote homes, and lighting. The major candidates for electric vehicles (EVs),
hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and electric utility applications in the near
term are the rechargeable battery technologies now available commercially.
Many of these have been improved over the last decade to meet the needs
of the emerging applications. Further improvement may, in most cases, be
necessary to effect economic viability.
EnergyandPower
A quantitative comparison of four secondary battery systems is presented
in Table 6.1.
