From Tyler Hamilton's "Clean Break" blog (http://tyler.blogware.com/blog)
Flow batteries: The solution to T.O.'s energy woes?
by Tyler on Tue 11 Apr 2006
A curious commentary appeared in my own newspaper, the Toronto Star, recently that I thought was worth posting here. It was written by a member of Canada's Green Party, and his argument is that massive flow batteries -- with frequent attention drawn to Vancouver-based VRB Power -- could be used today to help Toronto with its energy bottleneck. One of the problems with Toronto is that we've come to depend too much on energy generation located outside the city, and drawing that power into the city during peak times puts a major stress on transmission infrastructure. This includes imported power. As one provincial bureaucrat told me, Canada's largest city is "living off too many extension cords." This situation will only be made worse as more coal plants are shut down, which is why there's an effort underway to build natural gas plants within city limits -- four are envisioned at last count.
The author of this article suggests that flow batteries -- either one massive one or several not-so-massive ones -- should be located in strategic spots throughout the city where electricity is most needed or where we have transmission bottlenecks. The batteries could store cheap energy drawn from the grid during non-peak times, and during more expensive peak times could be put into service to take pressure off the grid and the transmission infrastructure. It's an interesting approach to shaving peaks and levelling loads, and not the first time I've heard about it. Problem is flow batteries of this size are still highly experimental, and utilities are averse to taking risks. So while the technology might be right, it will be a few years until it matures enough to convince Toronto Hydro to give it a shot. That said, they should be at least establishing dialogue with a company such as VRB and kicking the tires.
BTW: This experiment with storage is actually being done just outside of Toronto using a different type of battery technology. I can't report on the details just yet, but should have more information later next month. Very exciting stuff, actually. |
