Battery Energy Storage System and Photovoltaic

BESS, or Battery Energy Storage System, deals with managing the storage of energy produced by photovoltaic systems or from the grid in order to use it when necessary.

BESS, or Battery Energy Storage System, deals with managing the accumulation of energy produced by photovoltaic systems or by the grid in order to use it when necessary.

The BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) is related to the battery storage that stores the energy produced by photovoltaic systems or by the grid, in order to be able to use it when actually needed. Lithium-ion battery systems, in particular, use rechargeable batteries to store energy generated by solar panels or supplied by the grid and then make it available as and when required.

Coupled with RES, these will produce electricity at maximum output, while the battery becomes a buffer for storing and delivering RES energy.

The useful life of the BESS? We're talking about 10 years, after which they need to be replaced.

Why is this important?

The power grid must have the generation capacity to meet the demands of electricity consumers. And since demand varies widely both daily and seasonally, running generators to meet loads that have large peaks is a big challenge. Suppliers must have enough installed power capacity to meet this demand in real-time. Meeting these requirements typically means that capacity is run at 20% above estimated demand, while only an average of 55% of installed generation capacity is used over the course of a year.

This inefficiency is due to the perishable nature of the energy in the power grid. Due to the lack of storage devices within the grid system, energy must be immediately delivered and used by the consumer. The power capacity for energy storage within the grid is currently 125 GW (mostly in the form of pumped hydro), which is about 3% of global energy capacity.

Additional in-grid energy storage would allow many more plants to operate at full capacity and reduce energy losses during electricity transmission. Energy storage is a key element in diversifying energy sources and adding more renewables into the market. By using energy storage, generation sources do not have to be increased or decreased, but instead can be more efficient while energy storage accounts for changes in demand.

BESS currently represent only a small part of energy storage within the grid but have seen great growth due to their versatility, high energy density, and efficiency. More and more grid applications have become suitable for BESS as battery costs have decreased while performance and durability have continued to increase. Finally, BESS is able to react to grid demands almost instantaneously, but they also have the ability to run for longer periods and has a wide range of storage and power capabilities.

To fully meet the current needs of homes and industries, one can equip oneself with intelligent software that uses algorithms to coordinate energy production and the computerized control systems used to decide when to store energy to provide reserves or release it to the grid. Energy is released from the battery storage system during times of peak demand, keeping costs low and electricity flowing.

Benefits and Integration

The benefits of battery energy storage relate to energy efficiency, savings, and sustainability, facilitating the use of renewable sources and reducing consumption.

Integrating BESS within your photovoltaic system means supplying yourself and using clean energy when you really need it, polluting less and, therefore, being more efficient. But what about the cost? In fact, you have to consider the total cost of a plant compared to the cost of energy from the network.

While implementing energy storage within the grid has many benefits, there is an additional cost associated with the storage unit itself. The price of each kilowatt-hour of energy that passes through, before being sent to the grid, will increase. As an example, a generation source that wants to use energy storage can generate power for 10 cents/kWh with a Li-ion battery that costs $400 per kilowatt-hour to pair with the system.

Even if the battery has a life of 4000 cycles ( operating life of about 11 years with daily cycles), over the life of the battery each storage cycle will add an additional 10 cents to the price of energy, effectively making any energy twice as expensive. To get a true economic impact we would also need to assess the actual cost associated with not storing any energy (essentially the dollars gained from efficiency improvements).

In any case, energy storage prices are steadily declining while lifecycle lengths are increasing, along with the critical environmental issues that affect us all: thanks to the latest technologies, energy storage has become more feasible and is a good compromise in both energy efficiency and economics.

Conclusions

Battery storage technologies are essential to accelerate the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy. Battery storage systems will play an increasingly central role among green energy supplies and electricity demand response.

Battery storage technology plays a key role in ensuring that homes and businesses can be powered by green energy even when the weather is not particularly favorable (sunny or windy).

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