Energy Storage - Introduction Flashcards
Where is energy storage useful?
Grid-scale storage
Transport
Load balancing
Forms of energy…
Kinetic, potential, mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic, chemical nuclear.
Examples of energy storage based on type of energy…
Kinetic in fly wheels, mechanical energy in pumped hydro, electric storage in capacitors and supercapacitors
Parameters when considering storage efficiency…
Energy Density
Efficiency
Instantaneous Power
Degradation Rate
Longevity
Energy Density
The power of energy that can be compacted, especially in mobile energy storage
How are electricity demand flucutations regulated?
Peaking generators, especially for solar and wind energy.
Example of batteries in off-peak times…
Lithium-ion batteries hundreds per adult for solar power.
Types of low-density energy storage…
Pumped water, compressed air or thermal storage.
Pumped Hydro Stroage
Electricity generated by water falling through a turbine generator.
Current mechanism for grid energy storage…
Pumped Hydro Storage
How pumped hydro storage works?
Water pumped uphill using energy where water can then be released and used to run a turbine when needed
Efficiency of Pumped Hydro Storage
80%
Limits to pumped hydro storage…
It must be undergroun, more expensive.
Compare pumped hydro storage to batteries…
More economically viable but less energy density.
Adiabatic
A process without heat/mass transfer between the system and its surroundings
Impracticality of thermal storage in wind/solar…
Second law of conversion of electrical to tehrmal then reconversion has efficiency penalties.
Method of thermal storage…
Molten salt containing binary mixture of NaNO3 and KNO3
Important factor for transport storage…
Energy density
Carnot Limit
Sets a limit on the efficiency with which heat energy can be turned into useful work.
Dielectric
These are insulating materials or very poor conductors of electrical current
When is an electrical field generated in a capactior?
Voltage application across the plates with accumlation of electrons on one plate and equal number drawn from other plate.
Capacitance
This is a measure of the ability to store electrons, being dependent on geometry, closeness and size of dielectric constant of the material.
What is energy stored in capacitor proportional to?
Capacitance and square of the voltage across the plates.
What is the equation for capacitance?
E = 1/2 X C X V^2 where E is energy stored, C is capacitance and V is voltage across plates.
Why doe electrons accumulate on one plate in a capactiro?
Electric field generated by voltage, plate expelling electrons connected to negative terminal, attracted to postive charge of other plate with postive terminal of voltage source.
Virtual Photons
These are electromagnetic exchanging particles
Magnetic Fields
These are the forces exeperience by the charged particles in the presence of other charged particles, being a vector field descriing direction and strength of the force a positive charged woudl experience.
What is magnetic field described by?
Electrons wavefunction
What causes zeeman effect?
Interaction with electron motion and external magnetic fields.
Zeeman Effect
This is the atomic energy level splitting as well as splitting of spectral lines of a sample when an external magnetic field is imposed on a sample.
What does zeeman effect arise from?
Magnetic field interaction with magnetic moment of the electron.
Magnetic Moment
This is the magnetiusm resulting from an electron due to its spin and electric charge.
What is magnetic moment proportional to?
Angular momentum
What does magnetic field interaction with magnetic moment cause?
Energy levels to split into sub-levels.
What are the conductive plates in Capacitors made of?
Metal like Al or Tantalum, whilst dielectric made of ceramic, paper or plastic.
Why are metals used in electrodes?
Good electrical conductors.
Supercapacitors
These are high-capacity capactiros with a much higher capacitance value.
How do supercapacitors differ to capacitors?
Dielectric much thinner, with higher capacitance and higher energy density and faster charge.
Mechanism of supercapacitor…
Voltage application results in postively charged plate and negatively charged plate, both attracting opposite charges from the electrolyte, forming an EDL at electrode-electrolyte interaface, acting as a deielectric,