Storage Technologies

Rapid advances in storage technology have changed the way we access and use energy. Efficient system integration of variable renewable energies and decentralized generation requires a high degree of flexibility. This flexibility can be provided through dispatchable generation, storage and sector coupling solutions.

Heat and electricity are two indispensable components of our energy landscape. The challenge, however, is to efficiently manage the fluctuations in production and consumption. Electricity and heat storage systems play a crucial role in a future energy system, as they offer the possibility of storing excess energy from renewable sources for later use and thus decouple production and consumption over time.

Electricity and heat storage are becoming indispensable to overcome the challenges of intermittent generation and ensure a sustainable energy supply.

Electricity Storage

The world’s growing need to modernize global power grids and connect variable generation sources such as solar PV and wind power requires greater load balancing against demand. Electricity storage is becoming a necessity in the grid infrastructure. Energy management will be reorganized.

Electricity storage offers a variety of benefits for the power grid

Ancillary Services

By storing excess energy, electricity storage systems can provide ancillary services that compensate for imbalances between supply and demand in the network. Fast activation times allow them to respond to sudden fluctuations in electricity generation or demand, thereby ensuring grid stability.

Renewable energy integration

Electricity storage plays a crucial role in the integration of renewable energy such as wind and solar energy. Since the production of these energy sources is highly dependent on weather conditions and is therefore variable, electricity storage enables effective use and storage of these energy surpluses in order to then make them available when needed.

Load balancing

Electricity storage allows energy to be stored during periods of lower demand and accessed during peak demand periods, ultimately increasing the efficiency of the power grid.

Grid expansion

Areas with unstable grids and frequent outages will benefit from distributed energy storage systems and microgrids with storage.

Overall, electricity storage helps ensure the flexibility, stability and reliability of the electricity grid, leading to more efficient use of resources and a sustainable energy supply.

Electricity storage technologies include a variety of approaches, each offering different advantages and areas of application

Battery storage

Battery storage technologies, particularly lithium-ion batteries, are currently widely used. They are well suited for use in small to medium-sized applications, such as home storage systems and electric vehicles. In addition, advances in research and development are expected that could improve energy density and further reduce costs.

Compressed air storage

Air is pumped into caverns using high and low-pressure compressors during times when there is a surplus of electricity. If electrical energy is required during peak load times, the compressed air flows out of the caverns in a controlled manner. Geological formations such as salt caverns, aquifers or exploited natural gas deposits serve as compressed air storage volumes. In addition, the compressed air can also be stored above ground in gas tube storage or spherical tanks.

Flywheel

Flywheel storage is a method of mechanical energy storage in which a flywheel is accelerated to a high speed and energy is stored as rotational energy. The energy is recovered by inductively coupling the rotor to an electrical generator and slowing the flywheel through braking.

Pumped storage power plants

Pumped storage power plants are a proven technology for storing large amounts of energy. They use water reservoirs at different altitudes to store and access energy and offer high efficiency and long service life. New approaches, such as underwater pumped storage power plants or artificial high-altitude storage facilities, could expand their possible applications.

Redox flow batteries

Redox flow batteries are a promising technology for long-term energy storage. They use liquid electrolytes that are stored in separate tanks and can therefore be scaled independently of cell size. This technology is particularly suitable for large storage capacities and slow charge/discharge cycles, as required for the integration of renewable energies into the power grid.

Superconducting magnetic storage

Superconducting magnetic storage is an emerging technology that can store large amounts of electrical energy in the form of magnetic fields. Although they are still in the development phase and face challenges such as the cooling requirements of superconductors, they could play an important role in grid stabilization and renewable energy integration in the future.

These technologies offer different approaches to electricity storage and can provide different benefits depending on the use case and location. Continued research and development in this area will help improve their efficiency, further reduce their costs and facilitate their integration into future energy systems.

Heat storage and power-to-heat processes

Reducing energy-related greenhouse gas emissions is a central goal of European energy policy. In addition to the integration of renewable sources into the electricity sector, the heating sector plays a central role in the decarbonization of the energy system.

The final energy consumption of fuels for heat generation in industry, households and the commercial and service sectors (GHD) is over 45% of total final energy consumption. The industrial sector consumed around 1/3 of this, which was mainly used to generate process heat but also to provide space heating and hot water.

Across the EU, around a quarter of industrial heat demand comes from low-temperature heat below 100°C, an area in which “classic” renewable technologies for heat generation, such as non-concentrating solar thermal energy, heat pumps and geothermal energy, have their greatest potential. The integration of fluctuating renewable heat sources into process heat generation represents a technical challenge, which can be achieved, for example, by decoupling (solar) heat generation and process heat use using thermal energy storage, such as thermal mass storage, latent heat storage, sensitive heat storage and, in the case of geothermal energy, aquifer and ground storage be mastered.

Another quarter requires a medium temperature heat between 100°C and 500°C and can therefore in principle be provided by biomass or waste-fired CHP or gas engines. Heat storage can take place in latent heat storage, sensitive heat storage or thermochemical storage.

However, the majority of the final energy consumption for heat occurs in high-temperature processes above 500 °C. More than half of them are even used to generate process temperatures above 1000 °C. As a complement to direct gas burners in furnaces with an oxidizing atmosphere or similar processes such as melting metals in temperature ranges up to 1500 °C or even 2000 °C, ohmic heaters must be replaced by other technologies such as microwave plasma heaters, induction gas heaters or other technologies. If the process heat is generated directly from electricity, (high-temperature) heat storage, such as thermochemical storage, latent heat storage, liquid air energy storage (PTES), electrothermal energy storage (ETES) or sensitive heat storage, such as thermal energy storage made from molten salt, rock, sand or metal storage, allows a flexible, electricity-driven method of generating process heat and thus contributes to the integration of wind and PV electricity into the energy system.

Heat storage and power-to-heat processes play an important role in industrial heat supply for several reasons

Flexibility and load balancing

Industrial processes often require a continuous supply of heat, regardless of fluctuations in power generation or energy demand. Thermal storage makes it possible to store excess heat energy and release it again when needed, allowing for more flexible operation and balancing of load peaks.

Integration of renewable energy

Power-to-heat technology uses excess electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy to generate heat. This is particularly useful when electricity production exceeds current demand or when electricity is available at low cost. By converting electricity into heat, excess energy can be used efficiently and contribute to the heat supply of industrial processes.

Reduction of CO₂ emissions

In addition, they contribute to the reduction of CO₂ emissions by reducing the need for fossil fuels to generate heat and supporting the integration of renewable energies.

Overall, heat storage and power-to-heat processes are important instruments in industrial heat supply that can help improve the flexibility, efficiency and sustainability of industrial processes. The suitability of power-to-heat processes and thermal storage for specific temperature levels depends on various factors, including available technologies, heat conversion efficiency and cost. In many cases, their integration into industrial processes can help reduce the need for conventional heat sources, reduce energy costs and improve the sustainability of the processes.

Our range of services

Activities

Technical programmes

Events

Publications

Our team

Activities

The exchange of experience and, in particular, the development of practice-oriented solutions for the operation of storage technologies form a mainstay of our association’s activities. vgbe energy provides support with operational management, maintenance and plant optimisation as well as with techno-economic, ecological and strategic challenges. We focus on the following areas:

Exchange of experience on the planning and operation of storage technologies
Best practice of storage technologies
Business cases for storage technologies under the respective framework conditions
Improving availability, reliability and safety
Support of a cost-effective life cycle and environmental management
Initiation of research projects on interesting future topics
Presentation of positions to European and national regulations

vgbe-Standards

The vgbe-Standards reflect the state of the art for the generation and storage of electricity and heat. They are developed in close cooperation with operators and manufacturers.
Anwendungsbereiche sind u.a.:

Layout, design and planning
Purchasing and manufacturing
Construction and commissioning
Operation and maintenance
Dismantling and recycling

For ordinary vgbe members, the subscription to the vgbe-Standards in electronic form (ebook) is included in the membership fee. Affiliated and sponsoring vgbe members receive the vgbe-Standards at reduced rates.

Overview of all vgbe-Standards can be found in the media catalogue!

Research projects

To meet new challenges, vgbe energy offers collaborative research activities in which operators as well as manufacturers, universities, research institutes and the public sector pool their specific know-how and financial resources. This includes initiating and coordinating national and international research projects, building up know-how and knowledge.

Expert Workshops

vgbe energy organises topic-specific Expert Workshops to promote the exchange and problem-solving between experts at the highest technical level.

The Expert Workshops are planned by vgbe energy in co-operation with its members and cover a wide range of applications, including established and new technologies for energy generation and storage. They can be organised on short notice and can therefore not only address pressing issues in the industry, but also be used proactively to find solutions to upcoming challenges. A key feature of the Expert Workshops is the policy of “give and take”.

General Presentation

vgbe energy | Future Technologies as part of the Technical Competence Center “Future Energy System” is an interest and communication platform for companies that are committed to the promotion, implementation and operation of future technologies in the energy sector. This TC covers storage topics within the vgbe.

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Technical programmes

vgbe energy with its leading role in understanding good and best practices in operation and development launches different Technical Programmes in cooperation with its members. These programmes are part of the comprehensive activities of vgbe energy for the future energy sector to support the daily work in operation, maintenance and plant optimisation as well as in techno-economic and environmental challenges. Therefore, the programmes are open for vgbe members as well as vgbe non-members.