Ultraconducting Magnetic
Energy Storage (UMES)
Once Ultraconductors™
can be made into wires, and assuming they sustain as expected, maintaining
persistent currents, UMES are likely to perform at least as well as
Superconducting
Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) only without the need for expensive and complex
cryogenic cooling.
Some
years ago, Magnetic Power, Inc. cooperated with a scientist at the Los Alamos
National Laboratory who invented a technique of fabricating SMES perhaps eight
feet in diameter. These could be produced in a factory and easily transported
to their ultimate location. Several could be stacked and linked together by
utilities to provide whatever amount of energy storage was needed. This would
allow base load power plants to run at constant speed all day and night with
great economic and fuel saving advantages.
UMES
can be made small enough to use in vehicles. Tiny UMES could store energy for
chips.
Mark
--- On Sat, 3/7/09, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Vo]:Energy News of the Weird: Denmark tilting at windmills
To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009, 12:05 PM
Horace Heffner wrote:
The problem most likely is perhaps the utility has too large a base load
supply, coal or nuclear, which is unresponsive to load changes.
I did not read the article either, but I have read elsewhere that this is the
problem. Gas turbines and hydroelectricity respond faster, so they are a
better fit with wind turbines. The problem is that wind is intermittent.
If sufficient power storage for solar and wind is added as more windmills are
added then the base load will have to reduced even further, eventually
eliminated altogether - but isn't that a good goal?
I have read that with present-day distribution networks, wind can only supply
about 20% of the power, because of the intermittency problem. The Danish Wind
Industry Association said that iin Denmark on winter nights in some areas wind
is already at 20%, and in some places it exceeds local demand.
Pumped water storage for hydroelectricity is an efficient solution to this
problem. The liquid battery sounds good too. A million European electric cars
charging up at night with smart meters would be a great way to make use of
excess electric power from wind turbines.
The Danish Wind Industry Association is here:
http://www.windpower.org/en/core.htm
- Jed
