MAKING THE BEST STORAGE CHOICE EASY

New Software Helps Renewable Energy Developers Choose Best Energy-Storage Option

11 May 2012 (North American Windpower)

“Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. Department of Energy…[p]artnering with DNV KEMA, a global testing and consulting firm…[are] releasing Energy Storage Select (ES-Select), software designed to make it easier to conduct a quick, high-level analysis of energy-storage options and determine the value of energy-storage technologies for a specified application, including renewable energy projects.

“Developers and utilities that want to use energy storage have many technologies to consider, including flywheels, compressed air, pumped hydro, thermal storage and six types of electric batteries…According to Sandia, the tool helps companies make decisions about what storage technologies would work best in a given situation…”

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“…For example, if a business pays more for electricity during the day than at night, the owner could use the tool to quickly evaluate several energy-storage options to determine the costs and benefits of buying lower-cost electricity at night and storing it for use during the day…Users can input the application they are interested in, as well as specify such parameters as energy costs and discount rates, and the program produces a list of storage technologies and their predicted benefits and associated costs…

“ES-Select aggregates all of the inputs and assumptions - monetary value for an application, technology costs, performance characteristics and operation and maintenance costs - and quickly provides recommendations…”

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