Leeds University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have formed a joint research institute to develop next-generation energy storage systems.
The institute — a collaboration between the Institute of Particle Science & Engineering at Leeds University and the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) at CAS — will focus on thermal- and mechanical-based energy storage technologies.
According to a statement, nearly 50 researchers will work on research projects with an overall budget of £4m.
The projects will aim to develop and test new materials and processes for energy storage and explore methods for transferring and using energy more efficiently in both domestic settings and industry.
The initiative will help researchers to access funding opportunities in China, the UK, the European Union and other international sources, according to Leeds University’s Prof Yulong Ding, the first director of the joint research institute.
‘We aim to recruit high-quality postgraduate students, produce joint publications and joint intellectual property and drive knowledge transfer,’ said Ding.
One of the first activities of the joint institute will be to set up a scheme that will allow PhD students in the institute to move between Leeds and Beijing. This exchange programme will allow the students to spend time in the different labs to progress their research and benefit from the expertise and facilities of the two partner organisations.
‘The joint research combines the strengths of the two technically complementary organisations, which will promote the fast transfer of knowledge in the energy storage area and drive new technologies out of the lab and into the market,’ said Prof Suojiang Zhang, director of the IPE.
The two partners have worked together on projects for many years but this is the first time they have agreed to co-ordinate and combine their resources.
Finding more effective and efficient ways to store energy is becoming increasingly important to deal with the problem of peak demand on electricity grids. The ability to store excess energy generated from wind or solar generation is also a pressing problem.
Would it be of interest to use my knowledge/experience/ideas in the field,by joining the efforts,both with UK and Chinese specialists?If YES,I would like to ask you to facilitate the direct contact(s) with the persons in charge.I’m waiting for an answer!
Many thanks in advance!
Thermal energy storage was used a while ago utilising the latent heat transition of various salts. This worked ok, but took up a lot of room and was expensive.
Mechanical is essentially ‘pumped storage’ utilising kinetic energy to release the stored potential. Spinning flywheels may work, but not sure of safety aspects of having large weights at high RPM’s.
All in all this sounds like another scheme to soak up taxpayers money and pay someone a huge salary.
Are these research initiatives the natural offspring of ‘Quangos’?
The Dannish solution 100% renewable energy (RE) by 2050 includes :
– energy efficiency including optimised building energy refurbishment… lower demand
– district heating using surplus RE in low cost large inter-seasonal heat stores with efficient low temperature distribution
– variable cogeneration (CHP) biomass/biogas used as peak/ low RE back up.
– solar thermal DH
– mass transit move away from individual car transport
– excess RE stored in efficient/ cost effective means
– fuel from RE for transport, chemical feedstock not all electric transport
Similar UK proposition by AECB Less is More
http://aecb.net/news/2012/07/less-is-more-energy-security-after-oil-lim-from-the-aecb/
Since I generated the Pumped Heat Energy Storage concept in the late ’90s we have developed the technology considerably and moved through three prototype machines.
Following extensive due diligence we have now attracted investment from the ETI (see http://www.eti.co.uk/news/article/eti_invest_14m_in_energy_storage_breakthrough_with_isentropic ).
In the absence of better information this proposal does look somewhat like clone of our work. If so, at least it is a further vote of confidence in the concept.
Jonathan Howes,
CTO Isentropic Ltd
http://www.isentropic.co.uk
The CEGB solved the problem by searching the UK for a large lake high up on a mountain then constructing an electric pumping system to use cheap night time electricity available when demand was low to store water high up. The energy could then be released by allowing the water to flow back through turbines. It is called Dinorwic and is a triumph of engineering design and operation. Other solutions are only every likely to produce a few megawatts. Dinorwic generates 1.8 gigawatts for up to 8 hours. As far as I know there are only a few UK sites where this idea can be duplicated but at least the technology is simple, well established, reliable and cheap.
Energy storage is self-evidently vital and it is good to see support for this previously much neglected aspect of energy distribution systems.
Research is expensive and often appears expensive for the return. In the long term it is nowhere near as expensive as not doing it.