Energy Storage Systems

Energy storage is becoming more important as renewables take a bigger share of generation capacity and where grid systems cannot keep up with the increase in demand

Ricardo is investigating systems suitable for domestic and local storage and for use in conjunction with intermittent renewable generation systems such as wind farms

Key factors:

Key technologies being investigated include:

  • Energy & power density
  • Lithium-ion & lead-acid batteries
  • Specific energy & power
  • Sodium sulphur & flow batteries
  • Installation and life cycle cost
  • Supercapacitors
  • Roundtrip efficiency
  • Superconducting magnets
  • Storage time (half-life)
  • Flywheels
  • Lifetime vs depth of discharge
  • Compressed air