FIAMM BATTERIES and SAFT BATTERIES
As a normal every day sort of guy, you don’t think about
some of the everyday things that are just beneath the surface. I have started
to take a greater interest in our environment, mainly to do with the link to my
favourite subject and that is batteries and there recent rise in the
development of the future to drive and store the energy for cars, our homes and
businesses.
We all know about the development of different battery
technologies in the auto trade, to drive cars without
the use of fossil fuels,
the latest and most common being Lithium-Ion batteries, but do we know about latest
problems that are affecting our national power systems all across the World,
including developed countries.
I started off doing some research about the use of batteries
for storing energy in the everyday household, especially the householders that
are” OFF GRID”, people with no mains electrical supply. This is because I happen
to sell solar storage batteries online. As I was reading I noticed that the
problem was now becoming more wide spread, in fact it was becoming a national
issue. The fact is that we will somehow; have to store more power in
electricity storage systems, which will include some battery storage. The
electricity that is produced from solar energy via solar panels and wind-power
are playing a larger role in the supply chain and are more difficult to store
because of their supply fluctuations, in other words we get more electricity on
a sunny or a windy day.
This makes it difficult for the power companies to regulate
supply and demand and will need some sort of storage system to level out the
production and consumption of the electricity. This means that electricity
storage can iron out the peak troughs between supply and demand, as the popularity
of large installations of wind turbines and Solar farms increases plus the
added input of domestic installations.
A trade and industry group have been set up named the
Electricity Storage Network that will help promote increased use of the electricity
storage on grid connected applications. Here in the UK the minister for
Universities and science, has introduced a package worth £600million of support
of which £30million has been set aside for the scientists to set up a research
and development department to look into feasible ways of storing large style
grid storage. More reading… http://www.sbc.slb.com/Our_Ideas/Energy_Perspectives/2nd%20Semester13_Content/2nd%20Semester%202013_Making.aspx
Other countries and companies are taking part in electricity
storage projects across the World, in the race to solve this problem. Some
battery companies are also at the forefront of developing electricity storage
units for this very purpose.
Saft batteries
One of the leading companies in the field of battery energy
storage is Saft batteries with their head office in France. Safts range of
battery storage systems will cater for both on-grid and off-grid storage
systems using different battery technologies such as Ni-Cd, Ni-MH and Li-ion
technologies. These battery systems will deliver high performance, long service
life and low/zero maintenance requirements even in extreme conditions.
Indeed in 2013 Saft, built and delivered the first European
large scale battery storage unit. The unit will installed in the Spanish island
of Gran Canary and is capable of producing up to 1MW(megawatt) of power for up
to three hours. This is exactly the thing that we will have to do in the
future, the project is part of the STORE project (Storage Technologies of
Reliable Energy).
This venture is to demonstrate the very thing that
Governments are looking for and if this technology exists I wonder why the
British government are spending tax payer’s money on R& D when this technology
already
exists?
The project will balance out the added input of renewable
energy from solar panels and wind-power with the demand for supply by storing a
releasing the electricity at the appropriate times, thus optimising the grid infrastructure.
Further reading…http://www.saftbatteries.com/market-solutions/energy-storage-renewables
Fiamm batteries
Fiamm Energy Storage Solutions S.p.A ;is an Italian battery
company and they have developed similar type storage units, using sodium nickel
chloride batteries. These units can supply the storage needs for the domestic
market, up to large accumulation stations that can supply the grid services. As
with Saft ; Fiamm say that because there is an ever increasing demand for
renewable sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, so there will be a
bigger challenge for the grid companies to balance out the difference between
supply and demand. One of the only way of stabilising the grid system will be
to store the electricity produced and then releasing it when the demand arises
at peak periods. More reading…http://www.fiamm.com/en/america/energy-storage.aspx
In hybrid power applications, battery energy storage can
support a mixed combination of off-grid generation comprising various
combinations of wind turbines, PV arrays, diesel-generators and fuel cells, pumped
hydro, liquid air, pumped heat, compressed air and flywheels,. Electricity storage projects are now in
operation throughout the world.
Hi I would like to introduce myself.Eric Robets I have worked in the
Garage and tyre and I am MD for online battery company
www.batteriesontheweb.co.uk. I have worked for a couple for national tyre
companies in my younger days, before starting my first business. I now own a
garage and MOT testing centre, here in the UK called Pellon Tyre and
Auto-centre, and I am a keen blogger about anything to do with cars and their
related products that will help my business. We are members of Point-S and
Motor-Codes and are also a Unipart Car Care Centre and of course Tyre-safe.
