The excess electricity from wind farms stored in batteries will use more energy than if it were not. According to a recent study by Stanford University, keeping extra solar PV power makes economic sense.
Four postdoctoral researchers at Stanford’sStanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project studied the energy costs of different clean technologies. They calculated the energy required to make something, such as a wind turbine or solar panels. Then they compared it to the point it saves, generates, or stores.
In their earlier research, the researchers found that both Wind and solar are ” worth it.” Both technologies produce more power than it takes for them to be created. According to previous research, however, solar requires more energy investment than Wind.
Their most recent study was published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science. It was entitled: The Energetic Implications Of Storing Solar and Wind-Generated Electricity versus Curtailing.
Sometimes, solar and Wind farms reduce the power flowing from their projects into the grid to compensate for the grid’sgrid’s increased demand.
In a Stanford University news release, Charles Bernhart, a lead researcher, said that curtailing renewable resources is wasteful. Grid operators trim wind turbines to prevent sudden surges of electricity, which could overload transmission lines and cause blackouts. As renewable energy becomes more common, curtailment rates will likely rise in the U.S.
Researchers wanted to know if there was an energy return on investment in excess power stored in any of the five battery technologies.
The researchers discovered that solar power could be stored as extra power. According to the release, solar panels require more energy than wind turbines, so wasting energy is more expensive from an energy perspective.
Researchers found that it takes the same energy to make a solar farm as each of the five batteries.
Michael Dale, the report’s co-author, stated that “storing solar power in batteries during low demand periods would be, therefore, energetically advantageous.”
The battery storage takes 10 to 50 percent more energy than the wind farm to make, depending on the technology used. This makes it economically uneconomical to store excess wind power.
Dale explained that it it’s almost like buying a safe.
He said, “You wouldn’twouldn’t spend $100 to store a $10 watch in a safe.” It’sIt’s also not wise to build expensive batteries to store an energy-efficient resource like Wind. However, it makes sense to make photovoltaic systems that require a lot of energy.