By Paul Homewood
h/t Doug Brodie
The United Kingdom will need approximately 175 TWh of storage capacity when domestic space heating is fully decarbonized, according to new research from the University of Nottingham in England. The claim is based on an analysis of future storage requirements for the electricity grid at different stages of heat pump deployment.
Bruno Cardenas, lead author of the paper “Heat pumps’ impact on the requirement for grid-scale energy storage in the UK,” for publication in Renewable Energy in July, told pv magazine that deploying sufficient storage capacity to meet future demand represents a massive challenge.
“Currently we don’t feel the storage challenge that much because the gas network is there and it has a huge amount of storage. You can store more gas in the pipes simply by increasing the pressure,” said Cardenas.
The scientists found that when domestic heat demand is 100% electrified, average annual electricity demand and peak load in the grid are 26% and 70% higher than current levels, respectively. The total cost of energy also increases by around 4% under the scenario modelled, due to the storage capacity needed. This means that a fully decarbonizing UK heating system will require significant investment in long-duration energy storage, according to Cardenas.
The researchers modelled a scenario in which underground hydrogen caverns and compressed-air energy storage (CAES) provide a combined 175 TWh of storage capacity. Hydrogen storage with 160 TWh capacity would cover around 220 days of UK demand plus 15 TWh of CAES to cover around 10 days, according to the scientists.
Full story here.
At average efficiency of 80%, we would need 200 TWh of electricity to produce that hydrogen via electrolysis. That would mean an extra 50 GW of offshore wind power.
The researchers also estimate an increase in peak demand of 70%, raising it to over 100 GW. This clearly has massive implications for national and local grids, as well as household wiring.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125006822
The paper is specifically about how much storage we would need if heat pumps are rolled out in scale. What it does not mention is the amount of hydrogen burning power stations tat would be needed, to produce the energy needed for those heat pumps.
But their calculations suggest we would need at least 40 GW, on top of the 30 GW we will need to replace existing CCGT fleet.