ESSAY: ENERGY STORAGE

The energy storage is mainly an economic decision. Without storage, an industry must develop and maintain an entire delivery network capable of meeting the highest peak of the year at any given moment. It means that the generation and consumption of the energy would be ‘just-in-time’, whereas with storage the industry must build up just what is considered to be a heavy but possible load.

Although electricity can not be directly stored, it can be transformed in other forms and converted back to electricity when needed. The additional value of the electricity during the peaks of demand must, therefore, cover the cost of the storage. Therefore, not all the systems for storing energy are suitable at any point.

As the electricity demand is expected to continue growing up, storage can be a key point to give flexibility to the electricity market. In addition, energy storage plays an important role in the development of the renewable energies. The production of renewable energy is desirable because of the environmental improvements, the increase in the energy security (supply becomes more independent from third countries with low political stability) and the improvement in the competitiveness. However, renewable energy resources have two problems. Firstly, most of the renewable energy sources usually take place in locations far away from the centers of consumption (especially those concerning to wind farms) being necessary the construction of new grids. The construction of the grids takes much longer that the construction of the wind farms and this Lag-time opens a door to the storage technologies to use locally the energy generated. Secondly, the generation of power, generally speaking, occurs when the power demand is low.  By storing this power, it can be released during the peaks of demand. Both facts will make renewable energy more cost-effective and promote its acceptance in the coming years

Without storage, the electricity market is threatened with

a)      Raised volatility: higher and more unpredictable prices which lead to reduced investment by manufacturing and service industries in that region

b)      Reduced reliability: lower assurance that high quality power will be continually available rises the cost of the electricity and the risk of damaging the facilities

c)       Threatened security: problems of secury of supply where backups are much likely to occur and increase the damage of sabotage

However, if the energy storage technologies are further developed and successfully applied, those previous challenges can be overcome and a more efficient market that costs less to operate and that is more responsive to market changes and reliable in the event of disruption is achieved.

As commented, not all the locations should be provided with the same energy storage. At present, a number of technologies are commercially viable, while others are expected to be in the next future.

Pumped-hydro storage is the oldest and largest of all the storage technologies. It consists of two reservoirs, one located at a low level and other at higher level. During the off-peak the water is pumped from the lower reservoir to the higher one, where it is stored. During the on-peaks, water is released producing electricity in the water-turbines placed under the waterfall. Due to the high construction cost, long construction times and the requirement of large amounts of land, this technology is only suitable in certain locations.

Compressed air energy storage consists in compressing air into a underground reservoir during the off-peaks and releasing this air during the on-peaks. The air goes through a gas turbine generating the electricity. This technology together with the pumped-hydro storage is the only one that is commercially available to provide large capacity of storage

Regenerative fuel cells are capable of storing and releasing energy through a reversible electrochemical reaction between the two electrolytes. In this technology the electricity is stored into chemical energy and the release of the potential energy occurs within an electrochemical cell with a separate compartment for each electrolyte (separated by an ion-exchange membrane).

Battery is a technology used as utility-scale energy storage and that relies on different electrochemical reactions. However, all of them are composed of two electrodes separated by an electrolyte. During the discharge, ions from the anode (first electrode) are released into the solution and deposit oxides on the cathode (second electrode).

Superconducting magnetic energy storage is an emerging technology where the energy is stored in the magnetic fields created by the flow of direct and current in a coil of cryogenically cooled, superconducting material. It has a high operating cost and therefore best suited to provide constant, deep discharges and constant activity.

Flywheels stores energy through accelerating a rotor up to a high rate of speed and maintaining the energy in the system as inertial energy. Advanced composite materials needed to lower the weight of the rotor. The energy stored in the rotor is proportional to its momentum but the square of the angular momentum. The advantages of this system are the compactness of the system and the lower operate and maintenance costs.

Thermal systems are high-technologies based in the storage of energy either as ice-based systems to cool down commercial and buildings during the high temperatures or as a molten-salt based for steam production. Both kind of systems are not yet fully developed and seems to be the most suitable ones to extend the ability of solar and other renewable energy resources.

Hydrogen is still in the development stages as well, but will be an integral component of any future economy. The hydrogen can be stored in a gas, liquid or carbon-based form, which is then released through a chemical or physical reaction to power a fuel cell. Most storage systems can be used for both stationary and vehicle applications.

Independently of the energy storage technology they bring competitiveness to the market. Especially the large scaled storage facilities are expected to improve the reliability of the grid, allow a faster recoup of the investments and decrease the market risks. Due to the capacity of absorb energy during the off-peaks and release while it is needed the beneficial effects of the energy storage technologies will be accumulated as long as they are incorporated into the market. These benefits will be, among others:

-          Better energy management allocating the energy between the low-cost off-peak and the high-cost peaks

-          Provide power to assure a continuity of service during the switch-on and switch-off of the power facilities

-          Maintain the grid stability, voltage, power quality and reliability

To sum up, the development and implementation of the most suitable energy storage technology for each location is a must in the coming years. This implementation should be carried out at the same time that the energy network is renovated or construction and it will bring down the electricity prices by improving the management of the energy market, increase the security of supply and its quality in terms of stability, power and reliability, and allow the development of the renewable energy sources.

Acknowledgement

I thank all of you who want to post a comment!! ;-)

Sources
Enery storage, ESC white paper of the energy storage council, 2002, among others...

ESSAY: Europe's energy infrastructure

The development of a future low carbon economy in Europe is based on a new Europe’s energy infrastructure. Future low carbon economy in Europe relies on the achievements proposed by 2020. The well-known 20, 20, 20 objectives consist of an increase of the final energy consumption from renewable sources until 20%, a reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions by 20% and an increase of the energy efficiency by 20%. Moreover, Europe should ensure secuity of supply to its citizens at affordable prices against the increasing competitiveness of the word resources.

Previous bad experiences, such as the disruptions of gas in Eastern Europe or the impossibility to accommodate the electricity produced in the Northern Seas and Baltic areas or in Southern Europe pointed out the needs for investments in Europa energy infrastructure. In addition, the importance of the fossil fuels in the present and coming years due to the increase of the European population and increasing electricity demands confirm this necessity. (Comment 1)

The European energy infrastructure based on the electricity, gas and oil networks as well as in new technologies such as carbon capture and storage ones (Comment 2) should face several challenges in order to become more competitive and achieve the following objectives:

-          Decrease the costs towards low carbon economies

-          Ensure secure of supply to its citizens and help to stabilize the prices of fossil fuels

-          Ensure affordable energy prices

-          integrate the European networks with the neighboring networks.

In order to reach these objectives, some priorities are required depending on the network or technology under study. These priorities and challenges are discussed in the next sections.

Electricity grids
Electricity grids must be updated and modernized. They should be able to accommodate the increasing electricity demand (Comment 3) as well as the increasing electricity production from intermittant renewable sources. The electricity demand has an increasing trend due to the increasing number of appliances and technologies that rely on electricity as energy sources. Moreover, the increasing population (Comment 4) as well as the increasing life quality make that the overall electricity demand will be significantly higher in the coming years.

On the other hand, the fast increasing off-shore wind farmers in the Northern Sea Europa and Baltic area as well as the increasing production of renewable energy in Southern Europa should be successfully accommodate in the future electricity grid. These renewable sources are located far away from the center of consumption or storage (Comment 5)and therefore not only the absorption of the generated electricity but also an efficient transportation of this electricity will be key points.

The current antiquated electricity grid should become more flexible and well-interconnected in order to be suited o previous needs renewable energy. Moreover, the electricity grid should become smarter and include storage technologies. The development of smart grid needs of investments and research but it will allow consumers to consume the energy at lower prices and in a much efficient way. Smart grids will increase the competitive retail market as the electricity prices are expected to decrease, provide well functioning energy services, integrate the renewable energy generation and distribution with the electricity demand and allow new types of demands.
On the other hand, to ensure an efficient consumption of the renewable energy generated in the further locations in the centers of population, a new high-voltage long distance network and new storage electricity technologies are desirable. Providing the electricity grids with efficient high voltage long-distance networks the losses due to the transportation are significantly reduced and it will become more secure.
Consequently, the priorities that concern the electricity grid are the integration of the off-shore grid in Northern Sea, the improvement of the connections South/West Europe to accommodate the electricity coming from renewable sources, the improvement of the electricity grid located in the Baltic region and last but not least the development of smart grids.

Gas and oil grids
As commented previously, the increasing European population together with the increasing energy demand per capita point out that the importance of fossil fuels will not decrease in the next years. (Comment 6) For this reason, the necessity of well-interconnected networks for gas and oil is a priority.

Regarding natural gas, the dependence of Europe on Russia, north of Africa and other third countries will continue. At present, natural gas is provided by three main routes. Eastern Europe is provided by Russian natural gas, Western Europa by African natural gas while Nordic Countries have their own reserves. Due to bad experiences in the recent past, when some gas disruptions happened in Eastern Europe with dramatic effects on the overall European economy, one of the priorities related to gas grid is the diversification of the supplier. The diversification of the supplier can be achieved by including different kinds of natural gas, such as liquid natural gas and compressed natural gas, the construction of bi-directional pipelines (Comment 7) or the enhancement of storage capacities (Comment 8) of the gas grid.

The diversification of the gas suppliers implies the abolishment of the current monopolistic market, where each European region is supplied by only one supplier. The diversification will enhance the competitive between the suppliers decreasing the instabilities on the prices and the dependence of the gas prices on oil prices (Comment 9). This is one of the priorities for the coming years. However, it implies the construction of new and very well-interconnected pipelines in order to have at least two different suppliers for each European region and guarantee the gas supply from one region to another one.

Regarding the oil network, it would be desirable the supply of oil by pipelines. Oil pipelines will avoid the current vessel transportation of the oil by only one route and decrease enormously the possibility on environmental hazards. (Comment 10)

Carbon capture and storage
Finally, energy infrastructure includes new technologies that will help to reach the 2020 European objectives. Among the current technologies under development or pilot scale, those concerning carbon capture and storage should be considered. The CCS technologies will allow to continue using fossil fuel for electricity generation without emitting CO2. The technologies present risk and benefits that are still being testing through pilot plants.

Due to the fact that the potential CO2 storage sites are not well distributed across Europe (Comment 11) and the fact that some MS, considering their significant levels of CO2 emissions, have only limiting potential storage within their national boundaries, construction of EU pipeline infrastructure spanning across states border and in the maritime environment, where most of the CO2 reservoirs are planned,  become necessary.

Obstacles
Although the needs of constructing updated and well-interconnected networks of mainly electricity and natural gas but also of oil and CO2 are highlighted, there are some obstacles that should be overcome in advance.

The construction of pipelines and networks implies the necessity of investments. The evaluation of the investments required to renovate the obsolete energy infrastructure is usually evaluated by the regulators at national level while the impacts of their decisions on the EU internal market are at EU level and beyond. In this sense, the key infrastructure connection projects among the member states are taken at national level and thus tend not to approve the necessary rate of return and tend to be postponed or considered not of high importance. In this way, the evaluation of the benefits of the investment should not be limited to national level but consider the benefits and the returns that can bring across EU.

The strengthen and extended ETS where there will be a unified EU carbon market can help to shift the optimal electricity supply mix in favor of fossil fuels as they become low carbon supply sources. This fact will avoid the further development of the renewable energy sources as well as the development of the storage technologies in the electricity grids. Similarly the regulation on security gas supply will enhance the EUs capacity to react to crisis simulations but can also promote the dependence of EU to this fossil fuel.

Finally, the control of the systems of distribution of energy risks at espionage and terrorist attacks as well as political instabilities. The control of the energy distribution systems is done by IT. The protection of these systems and the investment on new technologies is unavoidable to protect citizens from environmental hazards and terrorist attacks as well as to ensure an efficient supply.

Conclusions
The update and modernization of the European energy infrastructure is a necessity to ensure the secure of energy supply to the citizens at affordable prices, a reduction of the cost of low carbon shift economies. These objectives will be achieved by a technical improvement of the present technologies, greater efficiencies and higher flexibility. The investments required in the energy infrastructure should be considered at EU level since their benefits are across the borders of the member states.

The investments required in the European energy infrastructure are both physical and related to the control and management. Both kinds of investments will have a great impact on the economy since energy is the foundation of the current economy, will allow the accomplishment of the 20-20-20 European objective, set up a low carbon economy. But, without any doubt, these investments ensure the secure of supply to citizens at affordable prices.

Regarding the electricity grid, the priorities are the development of well-interconnected and smarter networks and the integration of renewable sources as well as storage technologies to accommodate the increasing electricity demand.

Regarding the gas grid, the current priorities are the diversification of the suppliers, providing at least two suppliers to each European area, increase the flexibility requirements of LNG and CNG, provide Europe with bi-directional pipelines and enhance the storage capacities of the grid. These objectives will reduce the current monopolistic market and consequently increase the competition among the suppliers stabilizing gas prices independently from oil prices. The construction of an oil pipeline network will avoid the transport of this kind of fossil fuel by vessels on an only route and decreasing the environmental hazards.

Acknowledgment
The author thanks to P.D. for his fruitful comments and corrections and all the friends for all support, opinions and comments received. They have been carefully evaluated!!!!

Sources

- Energy infrastructure: priorities for 2020 and beyond ─ A Blueprint for an integrated European energy network – DG Energy

- Notes from Bucharest summer university 2011. Notes taken after long party nights….

- Ideas that came to my mind during the three hours that took me to write this essay….

Are dreams coming true???

Sin duda alguna, y después de un fin de semana totalmente diferente a lo esperado, el final del verano ha llegado para mí…. La pena de lo que pudo haber sido y no fue, de si he dejado pasar la ocasión o no, de si lo voy a echar de menos o es mejor así y de no tener las cosas claras atormentaban mi cabecita esta mañana… con esta madeja de pensamientos he llegado a la oficina y de manera automática he abierto mi Inbox mientras me tomaba el primer café: 50 emails esperándome… bueno otras veces ha sido peor, pero la cifra prometía que iba a ser un día de lo más aburrido….

Más o menos por el email 10 me he llevado una estupenda sorpresa!!! Estaba en el IPTS el Prof. Hanemann!!! Que hará este hombrecillo por aquí?? Pero en el fondo es lo que menos me importaba…. Su nombre me resultaba familiar pero no sabía muy bien donde ubicarle... así que ni corta ni perezosa he clicado sobre el link de su CV y si eso era: Prof. Hanemann es un catedrático en Environmental economics de la ‘School of Sustainability and Department of Economics’ . Achhh, richtig… was tonten bin ich!!!!

La verdad es que es un hombrecillo interesante, pero más interesantes son sus trabajos relacionados con ‘water management economics’, especialmente para Mannolandia (o sea Zaragoza y alrededores…). Aparte de eso, yo también tenía el gusto de conocerle a través de papers en ‘air pollution policy in California’ que fue un referente en mis años de tesis doctoral...  Pero bueno, la alegría ha venido al leer entre sus nuevas publicaciones una referente al trasvase del Ebro hacia las cuencas del sur de España y además en colaboración con un profesor mío, al que siempre le he tenido mucha admiración.

‘The rise and fall of the Ebro water transfer’ forthcoming in Natural resources journal http://docs.china-europa-forum.net/nrjalbiacwt52.pdf

He de confesar que, una vez que se paralizo el proyecto (o más o menos paralizo) no he seguido el tema con mucha atención, pero aun recuerdo horrorizada la impresión que me causo en los últimos años de carrera pensar en esta loca idea de llevarse el agua del norte de España hacia el sur con el objetivo encubierto de regar campos de golf y como fue una de las pocas ocasiones en las que Aragón entero salió a la calle a defender sus recursos y el derecho a gestionarlos…. No es que yo sea un miembro activo de ‘Aragón ye nazion’ pero considero que esta comunidad no tiene tantos recursos naturales como para encima quitarle lo poquito que tiene… y más aun cuando ninguno de los estudios de impacto ambiental se tuvieron en cuenta y según los últimos estudios tampoco los económicos!!!

El paper lo he de leer con más calma pero llega más o menos a las mismas conclusiones que tenía yo en mi cabecita llena de pájaros… que si el sur quiere agua la desalinización es la opción más adecuada y más aun una buena gestión!! Si, una vez más el factor humano resulta ser el kit de la question….

Más contenta que chupito he convencido a todo mi grupo que valía la pena bajar a la conferencia, y aunque luego ha resultado que no ha sido una clase magistral a la que nos tienen acostumbrados estas eminencias, ha sido más o menos interesante… si además de eso, tenemos en cuenta que han traído ‘carrot cake’ auténticamente irlandés a la oficina (sin duda alguna mi favorito!!!), podemos asegurar que la Re-entree de este año no ha estado nada, pero nada mal!!

STUCK in NO MAN'S LAND….

La información de los trenes en Bulgaria y Rumania deja mucho que desear, tanto que la mayoría de los locales te aconsejan usar la página alemana bahn.de. Esta vez, cada una de las paginas consultadas daba una información diferente, así que decidí ir a la estación con el propósito de coger el primer tren que aparecía en el revoltijo de websites…. Lógicamente, acabe cogiendo el último, con la consecuente espera de tres horas….

El tren internacional que me tenia que llevar a Bucarest era mas viejo que los regionales que cogiamos con el Wochenendes Ticket en mi época de Erasmus…. de hecho, yo creo que era el mismo pero que aquí se usa para un transporte internacional… no comments….  Eso si, no he pasado más calor en mi vida y hubiese cambiado este día con los ojos cerrados por otro "con una pincha media hora de sol enfrente del ordenador de F." Entre el calor y el cansancio que llevo de estas tres semanas… estaba que no me podía mover….

La primera parte del camino la hicimos sin incidentes, pero al llegar a Russe (la frontera entre Rumania y Bulgaria) se acabo la felicidad…. Lo primero de todo nos reorganizaron en dos vagones y en el coincidí con una English party de unos 10 hombrecillos, que venían de ver el partido del día anterior Bulgary-England. Llevamos parados en Russe como 15min cuando uno de ellos comenzó a quejarse de hambre. Tanta pena me dio que al final decidí darle el sándwich y los cakes que me había comprado en la estación para acabar las levas que me quedaban en el bolsillo, pero que tenia prácticamente seguro que no iba comerme (desde luego de apetitoso tenían poco…) y él, a cambio, me dio una cerveza… a lo tonto formamos un grupito de internacionales (con dos alemanes que estaban hanging around Bulgary and Romania…) que hizo la espera de dos horas largas mucho mas llevadera….

Lo primero de lo que nos quejamos fue de la falta de información que recibimos… en los mensajes por altavoz de la estación oíamos la palabra Bucarest, pero lógicamente no entendíamos si lo que decían es que nos fuésemos a visitar la ciudad porque la cosa iba para largo, como luego resulto, o que nos subiésemos al tren ya porque nos íbamos…. así que estábamos todos en la plataforma intentando comunicarnos con los trabajadores de la compañía ferroviaria sin ningún éxito y gastando las típicas bromas de estas ocasiones… o alguna mas, porque estos ingleses llevaban ya alguna cervecilla de mas….. Finalmente creímos entender, que el motor había tenido una avería, pero lo curioso en que nos marchamos en cuanto la policía nos reviso los pasaportes… por eso, a mi personalmente, me da que pensar si no estaríamos esperando a la poli…  con un motor en perfectas condiciones!!!! Anyway, los hombrecillos ingleses eran unos hooligans de pacotilla que no dan miedo ni nada...vamos que en realidad eran muy dulces y unos abuelillos, que hablaban claro como el agua y con los que pasamos una buena tarde. Se iban recorriendo el mundo siguiendo a la selección inglesa ya que su primer equipo jugaba en lo que venia siendo la segunda regional española… Además, el mas mayor de todos y el mas hambriento, me regalo su ticket para venir al aeropuerto. Asi que en un par de horas esta pequeña gran Alicitas recogió mucho mas de lo que sembró!!!! Para ser mi última tarde en estas tierras, podemos decir como decían M. y L. (mis anfitrionas en Sofia) that "it was different and interesting!!!"

SOFIA y BOYANA village

Sofía es una ciudad que me ha impresionado muy gratamente. Conserva las grandes avenidas del este europeo pero lo combina a la perfección con enormes árboles verdes y muchas plazas y parques. Al contrario que en Bucarest, las calles están llenas de tiendecitas pequeñas y cafés al mas puro estilo Ossi que me encantan y por lo tanto no transmite la sensación de stress de otras grandes ciudades…. Para acabar de mejorar la cosa, Sofía esta rodeada de altas montañas que se pueden ver por encima de los edificios y al final de las avenidas. Unas montañas verdes divinas que invitan a pasear por ellas….

Siempre me han dicho que mi apariencia física no corresponde con la típica española, y eso que creo que yo soy la más española de toda mi familia!!! Mis hermanos: altos, delgados, rubillos y con ojos azules son la antitesis del típico español....También siempre había oído que mi apellido es muy común como nombre de persona en los países eslavos, pues bien parece que aquí he encontrado mis raíces!!! Aun así tengo mis dudas, pues según las leyes básicas de la genética, que nosotros sigamos siendo mas bien arios es un desafío extremo… ya que esta mas que comprobado, que los rasgos recesivos de mi familia al unirse a españoles con genes dominantes deberían desaparecer…. En fin, milagros de la vida…..

Boyana church es una iglesia situada en un pueblecito para la clase alta de Sofía, que es patrimonio de la UNESCO desde que esta "boyi mediana" decidió venir al mundo. La iglesia es txikitita y típicamente búlgara/ortodoxa con unos frescos del siglo XIII perfectamente conservados y muy adelantados para su época. Los frescos consiguen transmitir algunos sentimientos de los personajes y movimiento en sus ropas que era algo impensable hace 8 siglos. El pueblecito es más que encantador ya que esta en mitad de un bosquecillo en la montanna y además ofrece una vista estupenda de toda Sofía. Las casas son auténticos chalets conservando la arquitectura de la zona, las fachadas de piedra y madera que hace que te remontes unos cuantos siglos al estar allí…

A la salida de la iglesia, tuvimos la suerte de encontrarnos con un grupo folk muy conocido en Bulgaria (totalmente desconocido para mi.. :-((() que estaban grabando algo así como un video!!! La música folk de esta zona esta más que bien!!! aunque en la mayoría de los sitios la única música que puedes escuchar es comercial tipo máxima-FM…. En esta ocasión, este grupo se unió a otro ingles con lo que la combinación de instrumentos (el Kavals, una especie de flauta tipica de los Balcanes) y estilos fue increíble. Espero no olvidarlo:

http://www.robertsnider.com/Kavals/

Sin embargo, y aunque me he leído el librito de Boyana village de pe a pa no he conseguido averiguar en verdad quienes eran los dichosos Boyanos…. O porque este pueblo o esta iglesia recibió este nombre…. Tampoco que paso con los habitantes del pueblo y si se tuvieron que ir de allí por alguna razón en especial. Pero bueno, he de decidir que la visita a la iglesia me ha encantando y ya no me siento tan perro verde aunque sepa que allí donde vaya tendré que seguir deletreando mi apellido…. :-))

En un tren ruso….

El camino a Sofia lo hago en un par de trenes, el primero maravillosamente bien desde Constanta a Bucuresti, en un tren con asientos libres donde me hecho una siesta estupenda y sigo leyendo mi libraco de Ken Follent como si estuviese en el salón de mi casa… el segundo, es un poco mas accidentado.

Conseguir un billete para este tren vuelve a ser más de lo mismo, la persona que me lo tiene que vender no esta en su puesto, espero más de media hora y sigue sin aparecer…. Voy a la taquilla de enfrente y me manda a freír espárragos, vuelvo a la taquilla de más allá y le doy tanta pena al decirle que llevo más de 30min esperando y que mi tren va a salir en breve, que decide llamar al responsable. La mujercilla que me tiene que atender lo hace como quien echa de comer a los perros… pero al final me da el billete… eso si una vez en mi poder me doy cuenta que la suma de la reserva y del ticket es ligeramente inferior al dinero que me ha pedido…. En fin, que le vamos a hacer… una vez mas los guiris pagamos el pato y espero que el café que se va a tomar a mi salud le siente a las mil maravillas….

El tren en cuestión es un tren ruso que viene de MOSKOVA Los vagones tienen escudos pintados y las literas están apiladas con seis personas por cabina. Lógicamente todo esta escrito en perfecto cirílico lo que hace fácil cualquier deseo de la menda…. Mi cabina se compone de lo que he deducido dos polacas "dovre, dovre" y otros dos personajes difíciles de categorizar pero que me parece que no vamos a tener gran comunicación entre nosotros aunque el muchacho lleve colgando de su mochila un llavero gigante del la Deutsche Bahn…. No se porque me da que esta noche también va a ser muy muy larga… pero me esta bien empleado para calmar mis ganas de interrail a edades avanzas……

Pasa el revisor y nos apaga la luz!!! LISTO!!!!! Fin de mi lectura…. Voy a lavarme los dientes e intentar dormir algo….