Storage of wind power is a key element to the success of wind energy, writes CNN in an article published yesterday about a research being carried out at Nottingam University by Seamus Garvey. First some figures: in Europe, the Danes are leading the way with wind power as 20 per cent of their electricity supply comes from wind turbines. They are followed by the Germans at 10 per cent and Spain at seven per cent.
In England wind power only accounts for one per cent of the total. So, in an attempt to improve the rates, Professor Garvey is looking into “storing energy in flexible containers on the ocean floor”, which is based on an existing method called Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES). Garvey’s vision includes a cone-like structure stretching 50 meters wide at the top to around 80 meters across at the base. The bags are made of a combination of plastics. “A polyester reinforcement at the core with probably a polytheme layer around that,” Garvey said.
“At a depth of around 600 meters, Professor Garvey calculates that the bags would be able to store 25 megajoules of energy for every meter cubed. The deep water is essential. ‘Only in deep water, where the pressure is greatest, are the bags a good economic proposition,’ Garvey explained.”
The article gives more detail about the system, which will delight the more technically-minded. The only glitch in the story is that Professor Garvey also advocates nuclear power as a short-term solution to global warming (he may have been giving too much ear time to that madman-about-the-world, Toni Blair). So readers are encouraged to overlook that bit and focus on his research into wind power, which is very encouraging.
