q&a: how can california handle the challenges of renewable energy? - home energy storage

Gov.
Jerry Brown and his allies in the legislature want California to generate half of its power with renewable energy by 2030, an increase from the target --third by 2020.
However, ensuring that all clean energy is available when needed is a huge challenge because the country lacks sufficient storage capacity.
Is there any problem?
Renewable energy can be difficult to manage because it is intermittent and nobody can control it when the sun shines or the wind blows.
Sometimes, California generates more energy than it needs at any given time, and power plants need to be shut down.
It is tricky to keep power before it is needed.
When there is too much electricity generated, why not turn off conventional power rather than renewable energy?
Some power facilities such as nuclear power plants cannot be shut down.
According to the California grid operator, natural gas plants can be scaled back but cannot be shut down all the time.
Some factories are subject to production contracts that cannot be changed or need them to keep the grid stable.
When solar energy disappears later in the day, demand for electricity increases as residents get home from work, which means that grid operators need to get fuel such as natural gas quickly to ensure there is enough power supply
Geothermal energy is one of the only renewable sources with "schedulability ---
This means a rapid increase in power supply during peak hours, or a reduction in power supply when the grid is over.
What is the help of energy storage?
If the country is able to capture excess clean energy, it can be stored and used later when demand increases.
This will reduce the demand for burning natural gas and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Reservoir is an era
Tested the method of pumping water through uphill and then releasing water when needed to store power.
However, grid operators are interested in newer technologies, such as large-scale batteries, which may respond more quickly to fluctuations in power generation.
There can also be other applications for this device.
For example, the factory can install the battery to charge when the electricity price is low, and then power the machine when the electricity price is high, which helps to reduce the cost.
Another storage technology that is in use but is not widely used is molten salt.
Some solar power plants store heat in large tanks of salt that can effectively maintain high temperatures.
This heat can be used to run turbines when the solar power plant starts off the line later in the afternoon.
Why is there no more energy storage now?
Money is the first.
The storage market is still in its infancy and the technology is still expensive.
Many projects and experiments in California are supported by state or federal taxpayers.
There are also questions about whether they can be financially integrated into California's power grid to purchase and sell electricity.
"There is no really clear market," said Neil Fromer, executive director of the California Institute of Technology's Resnick Institute for Sustainable Development . ".
"How do you establish financial returns in order to use these assets as effectively as possible?
"However, the storage industry is expected to expand, and the California Utilities Commission has asked the state's three largest utilities to install 1,300 MW of energy storage by 2024.
Energy officials hope demand will drive innovation and help overcome engineering barriers.
Challenges include string together many batteries, extending the life cycle of the device and managing the level of heat.
Haresh Kamath, who studies energy storage at the Palo Alto Electric Power Research Institute, said it may take several years to solve these problems.
"The battery is a very complex machine," he said . "
Julie Carter, the Times staff writer, contributed to the report.
Follow @ chrismegerian for more updates from Sacramento.