The future of electricity depends on energy storage. Renewable sources are becoming increasingly significant in the context of Italian energy requirements due to the policies adopted in Italy on reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the scope of various international agreements.
The future of electricity depends on energy storage. Renewable sources are becoming increasingly significant in the context of Italian energy requirements due to the policies adopted in Italy on reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the scope of various international agreements.
However, the road to decarbonisation is definitely not simple: certain renewable sources, whilst being available in great quantities — we refer for example to electricity sourced from the sun — are difficult to exploit.
These renewable sources are referred to as being non-programmable because their usage cannot be scheduled based on the energy requirement at a given time. Wind, biomass, geo-thermal and hydroelectric energy also fall into this category with solar.
Let us imagine: our home needs hot water, but cloudy conditions have prevented the solar panels on the roof from receiving energy for the entire day: how do we overcome this problem? The answer lies in storage systems, which create the conditions for this type of energy to be stored and redistributed on a scheduled basis.
If we project this example to national level, we can immediately understand how important it is to develop an effective system to also utilise these distributed and renewable resources. Two highly innovative energy storage solutions and technologies have recently been launched and adopted with this purpose in Italy.
The first was initiated in Sicily and Sardinia: it’s called Storage Lab and is a laboratory, unique in terms of the variety of technologies available (supercapacitors, lithium-based batteries, ZEBRA batteries, vanadium redox batteries) and the innovative nature of the control systems. Here, Terna experimented with the main accumulation technologies on the market, mostly of a power intensive nature, which deliver a high power output for short periods of time, focusing on their performance, durability and technical characteristics in different situations and operating conditions (normal and extreme).
The second project called the Large Scale project envisages the management of "energy intensive" batteries, i.e. batteries with a high stored-energy to installed-power ratio, installed on three different platforms in the Campania region. The aim of these platforms is to ensure maximum use of wind plants, reducing grid congestion linked to excessive wind production with regards to the power lines’ transport capacity. In addition to utilising the latest-generation batteries, the plants are equipped with a specific control system that can interface with peripheral plants and the central system.
Based on international decarbonisation undertakings, the portion of total consumption covered by renewables must increase to 30% in 2030 (from 18% in 2017). More specifically, renewables must cover electricity consumption by around 55%, once again within the deadline of 2030. The road to best exploiting renewable energy still has a long way to go, but storage systems that can make these resources “programmable” in terms of space and time, provide one of the fundamental solutions for the success of this transition.
