Manuel Baumann

A comparative probabilistic economic analysis of selected stationary battery systems for grid applications

This Paper focuses on a comparative probabilistic economic comparison of sodium sulfur batteries (NaS), Lithium-Iron Phosphate batteries (LFP), Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRB), Lead Acid batteries (PbA) and a Pumped Hydro Storage Plant (PHS). Two cases for a load leveling and peak shaving storage application were analyzed and compared. The comparison is based on a comprehensive literature review which showed remarkable deviations within most techno-economic values. This makes it difficult to assess the technologies by a deterministic approach. Therefore, a complementary probabilistic approach was developed in form of a Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS). The results show clearly that among batteries, PbA have the best cost performance followed by NaS and VRB. LFP has the highest costs within all scenarios. However, PHS is the most cost efficient technology for load leveling. In the case of peak shaving the battery costs decrease significantly due to lower initial investment costs.

Database development and evaluation for techno-economic assessments of electrochemical energy storage systems

A battery storage technology database was developed to assess the state of the art of different battery types by a literature and manufacturer data review. The database contains key techno-economic parameters to provide a solid basis for common assessment, modeling and comparison of battery storage technologies. A new approach is the comparison of literature data with manufacturer data to identify possible inconsistencies between different data sources.

Ecological assessment of nano-enabled supercapacitors for automotive applications

New materials on nano scale have the potential to overcome existing technical barriers and are one of the most promising key technologies to enable the decoupling of economic growth and resource consumption. Developing these innovative materials for industrial applications means facing a complex quality profile, which includes among others technical, economic, and ecological aspects. So far the two latter aspects are not sufficiently included in technology development, especially from a life cycle point of view. Supercapacitors are considered a promising option for electric energy storage in hybrid and full electric cars. In comparison with presently used lithium based electro chemical storage systems supercapacitors possess a high specific power, but a relatively low specific energy. Therefore, the goal of ongoing research is to develop a new generation of supercapacitors with high specific power and high specific energy. To reach this goal particularly nano materials are developed and tested on cell level. In the presented study the ecological implications (regarding known environmental effects) of carbon based nano materials are analysed using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Major attention is paid to efficiency gains of nano particle production due to scaling up of such processes from laboratory to industrial production scales. Furthermore, a developed approach will be displayed, how to assess the environmental impact of nano materials on an automotive system level over the whole life cycle.

Self-Consumption of Electricity from Renewable Sources

Self-consumption can facilitate the integration of variable renewables onto the grid and lower the overall costs of the energy system through load shifting. However, the self-consumption potential is limited without further technical enhancements in storage and demand response solutions. Such solutions can both facilitate a larger share of self-consumption and lower additional costs arising from photovoltaics integration. Unleashing the full potential that lies within the transition from passive consumers to active prosumers further requires information and communications technology solutions and smart battery-charging algorithms. This is necessary to ensure the exchange of information between the grid and prosumers, and thus a smooth integration of overproduction into the grid. Self-consumption is profitable for consumers if the costs of locally produced renewables are lower than retail electricity prices. If such a parity of costs is achieved, support schemes such as feed-in tariffs could be phased out. However, a high penetration of self-consumption solutions might lead to an unfair distribution of network charges, taxes, and levies. Future energy policy should therefore consider how to best reallocate costs.

The Importance of Recyclability for the Environmental Performance of Battery Systems

While several studies about the environmental impacts of batteries exist, the end-of-life stage is often disregarded and the relevance of battery reuse or recycling not quantified. However, the end-of-life phase of battery storage systems is highly relevant for their overall environmental performance. In order to quantify this relevance, we extend existing LCA studies by an end-of life model and assess the influence of battery recycling for the life cycle impact of three different battery types. These include a lithium-ion battery (LIB), a vanadium-redox-flow battery (VRFB) and an aqueous hybrid ion battery (AHIB), all for stationary energy storage services (renewable support). The results show that a high recyclability can improve the environmental performance of the batteries over their life cycle significantly. This underlines the need for a design for recyclability of batteries for minimising environmental impacts of battery systems and the corresponding loss of valuable resources.

Life cycle assessment of a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

Batteries are one of the key technologies for flexible energy systems in the future. In particular, vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) are well suited to provide modular and scalable energy storage due to favorable characteristics such as long cycle life, easy scale-up, and good recyclability. However, there is a lack of detailed original studies on the potential environmental impacts of their production and operation. The present study fills this gap by providing a comprehensive life cycle assessment of a representative VRFB. Transparent and comprehensive inventory data are disclosed as a basis for further environmental studies. VRFBs are found to be promising regarding the assessed impact categories, especially at high energy-to-power (E/P) ratios. On the other hand, significant impacts are associated with the vanadium pentoxide production, which is why the origin and processing of the vanadium bearing ores are a key for further reducing the environmental impacts associated with the VRFB manufacturing. While the lower efficiency of the VRFB is a disadvantage in comparison to e.g. lithium-ion batteries (LIB), its recyclability is significantly higher. In this sense, the importance of taking a cradle-to-cradle life cycle perspective when comparing very different battery systems can be highlighted for further research on this topic.

Solving security constrained optimal power flow problems: a hybrid evolutionary approach

A hybrid population-based metaheuristic, Hybrid Canonical Differential Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization (hC-DEEPSO), is applied to solve Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow (SCOPF) problems. Despite the inherent difficulties of tackling these real-world problems, they must be solved several times a day taking into account operation and security conditions. A combination of the C-DEEPSO metaheuristic coupled with a multipoint search operator is proposed to better exploit the search space in the vicinity of the best solution found so far by the current population in the first stages of the search process. A simple diversity mechanism is also applied to avoid premature convergence and to escape from local optima. A experimental design is devised to fine-tune the parameters of the proposed algorithm for each instance of the SCOPF problem. The effectiveness of the proposed hC-DEEPSO is tested on the IEEE 57-bus, IEEE 118-bus and IEEE 300-bus standard systems. The numerical results obtained by hC-DEEPSO are compared with other evolutionary methods reported in the literature to prove the potential and capability of the proposed hC-DEEPSO for solving the SCOPF at acceptable economical and technical levels.

V2G und P2G als Bindeglied zwischen Erneuerbaren Energien und zukünftiger Individualmobilität

Im Zuge der Energiewende ergeben sich neue Herausforderungen fur die Energieerzeugung und Speicherung sowie Chancen bei der zunehmen-den Verschmelzung von Energie- und Mobilitatsnetzwerken. Besonders die Erzeugung elektrischer Energie aus schwankenden regenerativen Primarquellen erfordert die Ausarbeitung und Realisierung geeigneter Ausgleichskonzepte wie z. B. Demand-Side-Management oder den Bau flexibler Kraftwerke und Stromspeicher, damit auch zukunftig das Angebot die Energienachfrage decken kann. Dies ist darauf zuruckzufuhren, dass die Speicherung elektrischer Energie im heutigen Elektrizitatssystem auf Pumpspeicherkraftwerke begrenzt ist. Indes konnen neue Energiespeichertechnologien durch die zeitliche Entkoppelung von Erzeugung und Verbrauch einen grosen Beitrag zum Gelingen der Energiewende leisten.

Elektrofahrzeuge als virtuelle Speicher zur Kompensierung volatiler erneuerbarer Energien in Deutschland – Ein neues Geschäftsmodell?

Die Automobilindustrie sowie die Energiewirtschaft unterliegen derzeit einem Paradigmenwechsel hin zu mehr Nachhaltigkeit, welcher durch knappe Energieressourcen, neue Umweltanforderungen und einem gesellschaftlichen Wandel getrieben wird. Obwohl die Integration von Elektrofahrzeugen (Battery Electric Vehicles Abk. BEV) in das Stromnetz und mogliche neue Geschaftsmodelle bisher kaum untersucht worden sind, wird das Potenzial der Elektromobilitat insbesondere darin langfristig gesehen.