Why Energy Storage?
Cold storage by ice cutting ...
We need energy – electrical or thermal – but in most cases not where or when it is available. Enjoying the sound of music while you are jogging, you can not stand beside the socket: electrical energy storages – batteries – make you mobile. The energy you need is stored for a short while and over the distance you like to run. Having a cold beer on a summers evening was possible even before cooling machines where invented. At that time people were cutting ice from the lakes in winter, transported the ice to the brewery and stored it together with the beer in deep cellars. The cold was stored form the winter to the summer: An example for long term thermal energy storage.
Energy storage technologies are a strategic and necessary component for the efficient utilization of renewable energy sources and energy conservation. There is a great technical potential to substitute for burning fossil fuels by using stored heat that would otherwise be wasted and using renewable generation resources. These energy sources can be used more effectively through the addition of short and long term energy storage. Thermal and electrical energy storage systems enable greater and more efficient use of these fluctuating energy sources by matching the energy supply with demand. Thermal energy storage can also be used for cooling to reduce or eliminate the demand for electricity, including the most expensive electrical energy that is generated during periods of peak power demand.
What is the ECES IA of International Energy Agency?
The International Energy Agency, based in Paris, is an autonomous agency linked with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The IEA is the energy forum for 26 Member countries. IEA Member governments are committed to taking joint measures to meet oil supply emergencies. They have also agreed to share energy information, to co-ordinate their energy policies and to co-operate in the development of rational energy programmes. The R&D programme Efficient Energy End-Use Technologies contains 14 different Implementing Agreements (IAs) of which one is the IA on energy storage. The full name of this IA is Energy Conservation though Energy Storage (ECES IA). read more