Economic and Environmental Analysis of Cool Thermal Energy Storage as an Alternative to Batteries for the Integration of Intermittent Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

The balance of the supply of renewable energy sources with electricity demand will become increasingly difficult with further penetration of renewable energy sources. Traditionally, large stationary batteries have been used to store renewable energy in excess of electricity demand and dispatch the stored energy to meet future electricity demand. Cool thermal energy storage is a feasible renewable energy balancing solution that has economic and environmental advantages over utility scale stationary lead-acid batteries. Two technologies, ice harvesters and internal-melt ice-on-coil cool thermal energy storage, have the capability to store excess renewable energy and use the energy to displace electricity used for building cooling systems. When implemented by a utility, cool thermal energy storage can replace large utility scale batteries for renewable energy balancing in utility regions with high renewable energy penetration. The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) region and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) are utility regions with large solar and wind resources, respectively, that can benefit from installation of cool thermal energy storage systems for renewable energy balancing. With proper scheduling of energy dispatched from cool thermal energy storage, these technologies can be effective in displacing peak power capacity for the region, in displacing traditional building cooling equipment, and in recovering renewable energy that would otherwise be curtailed.