Let’s look to battery farms for green energy

 

“Renewable energy is the future!”

Permutations of this catchphrase have been pronounced by prophets aplenty but more than a decade into the so-called “renewable energy revolution”, we are yet to see many countries, including Malaysia, switching to a predominantly renewable energy-based economy.

It’s easy to point fingers and say governments are ineffective or large corporations prefer to plunder our natural resources but those arguments very often are straw men that distract us from the real issue at hand – the intermittency problem of renewable energy solutions.

With a coal-fired or gas-fired power plant, energy can be derived anytime of the day, whether rain or shine. As long as the natural resource – coal or gas is readily available – we’ll be able to get electricity that can light up the lives of millions across the globe.

However, with the best known renewable energy solutions such as solar and wind power, when the sun isn’t shining (around 14 hours a day) or the wind isn’t blowing, no energy is being generated.

To counter this glaring drawback, renewable energy plants are often coupled with gas or coal-fired plants that help to generate energy when renewables can’t so as to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply.

Worse still, the most promising renewable energy technology – solar power – doesn’t generate energy exactly when we need it the most: at night.

This need to couple a solar power plant to a gas power plant to be able to handle peak loads makes many energy companies wary of investing in renewable energy due to their higher costs.

The best option, and one that is as close to a silver bullet as the renewable energy industry would get, is a cost-effective, reliable energy storage solution. With such a solution, renewable energy will truly come of age and be set to wipe out the scum that is the coal power plant.

There are many ways of storing energy – using pumped hydro, thermal storage, compressed air, flywheels, hydrogen and batteries.

They all have their pros and cons. For instance, pumped hydro and flywheels utilise tried and tested technology. However, they need to be of a certain size in order to work. Hydrogen and compressed air are relatively newer methods, but if found to be feasible, could be game changers.

But the most promising of the lot is undoubtedly battery storage. Chemical batteries have been around for decades and power many of our most precious electronic items. Thanks to this, there is a treasure trove of historical data that scientists and engineers can pore through to develop grid-level battery storage solutions.

Best of all, batteries are modular and stackable. This means that batteries aren’t monolithic blocks that require a specific type of geography to be installed. Instead, relatively small batteries can be arranged in a matrix depending on the space constraints of the specific location.

This is a huge advantage as it means that with some tweaks, they can be used for individual homes, neighbourhood-level microgrid-type systems and even large grid systems. This scalability would invariably drive prices down and make it increasingly more cost-effective, boosting its adoption rate over time.

Still sceptical about the viability of battery storage solutions? Look no further than what happened during the 2016 South Australia electricity debacle. After a massive storm resulted in a near-total blackout in the state of South Australia, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, vowed to build the world’s largest battery farm there in a mere hundred days.

This was aimed at stabilising the power grid and alleviating South Australia’s reliance on gas-powered plants. Against all odds, Tesla managed to pull off this unprecedented feat in just 60 days. The 100 MW capacity battery farm complemented the Hornsdale Power Reserve which uses wind and solar power to generate energy.

Today, it’s been deemed an unequivocal success. The battery farm cost RM205 million but has already saved consumers an estimated RM474 million, in addition to reducing the cost of regulating their grid by a whopping 91%.

Tesla has proven that green energy is not just good for the environment but is also good business. Hot on the heels of this astonishing success, many companies and countries are looking at battery solutions of their own.

It’s about time Malaysia did too.

We need to enlist the help of large scale battery solutions providers and pair them with solar power installers. The government should incentivise this partnership and provide them with the necessary help to make their energy marriage a long and fruitful one.

This is the only way we’ll break the iron grip that coal power has on Malaysia and ratchet up the share of renewables in our energy portfolio from the abysmal 1% it is at currently.

Battery technology is the holy grail in this quest to make renewable energy mainstream. And for the first time ever, it’s within our grasp. Let’s reach out and grab it. Our future depends on it. - FMT

The writer can be contacted at kathirgugan@protonmail.com.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.