POWER January 2017 - 51

INDUSTRY REVIEW & PREVIEW
Innovative Wind-Hydro-Storage Project
As increased volumes of renewables come online in Europe, various
grid operators are beginning to adopt new strategies to integrate
all the decentralized energy into interconnected cloud services for
more efficient, centralized control. Another strategy is to integrate
renewables and energy storage in a single project.
In Germany, GE Renewable Energy and Max Boegl Wind AG have
partnered to construct the first wind/hydroelectric generation and
energy storage system. Scheduled to come online this year, the
Gaildorf project will ensure grid stability along with ever-larger
battery backups, a fleet of which, developed by power plant operator
Steag and partner Nidec ASI, is currently coming online as
well.
The project-a unique sort of pumped hydro storage-will store
water for hydroelectricity inside wind turbines, allowing the towers
themselves to act like massive batteries once the wind stops
blowing (Figure 2). It's the first major example of the two technologies
being physically integrated to supply reliable renewable
energy.
The turbines will store energy from the spinning blades by
pumping water about 100 feet up inside the tower structure (Figure
3). Basins around each base will store another 9 million gallons.
When the wind stops, water will flow downhill to generate
hydroelectric power. A manmade lake in the valley below collects
the water until turbines pump it back up again.
GE is supplying the wind turbines and software, including its
Digital Wind Farm suite, which runs on the company's Predix system,
a cloud-based platform for the Industrial Internet. Voith is
supplying the pump turbines for the project-three reversible
Francis machines.
The wind farm will also sport the world's tallest turbines, at 584
feet. At full capacity, the turbines should produce 13.6 MW; the
hydroelectric component is expected to add another 16 MW. The
wind farm should connect to the grid sometime in 2017, with the
hydropower units coming online the following year.
■ Building more grid infrastructure to move
all the energy.
Germany seemingly has decided to take
an all-of-the-above approach, as developers
are now bringing that whole range of solutions
online.
All of the Above: DG, Storage, and
Virtual Power Plants
According to the EIA, by 2019, Europe may
end up with almost twice as much new distributed
generation (DG) as central generation
(47 GW vs. 28 GW). With as much as
256 GW already online, one of the logical
ways to better harness all that energy is to
network it into a virtual power plant.
That's what Siemens and RWE are doing
with their new Smartpool project, planned to
become the IT backbone of a large number of
connected and bundled DG sources. Building
on past collaborative projects, Smartpool will
January 2017 | POWER
be opened up to other utilities and grid operators
as well. (A video about the project, in German,
can be found at http://bit.ly/2gWGvcw.)
" Many innovative steps must be taken in
order to successfully manage the energy transition
to the new energy mix, " said Dr. Joachim
Schneider, CTO of RWE Deutschland AG. By
collaborating with Siemens, " we will be able to
significantly expand the benefits of new IT technology
systems and thus provide customers and
grid operators with efficient solutions for their
business. " As a result, public works and grid
operators will be able to use RWE Smartpool to
optimize the marketing of what are frequently
small amounts of locally generated electricity.
If the project proves successful, look for others
to be announced in 2017 and beyond, thanks to
the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and
cloud (scaleable, offsite) computing.
Additionally, with over 67 MW installed as
of the end of 2015, Germany is now one of the
world's leading energy storage markets. Euwww.powermag.com
rope's
first commercial battery storage system,
a 5-MW/5-MWh lithium-ion-unit went online
there in September 2014. In November 2016,
power plant operator STEAG Energy Services
GmbH-a wholly owned subsidiary of STEAG
GmbH, Germany's fifth-largest electricity generator-along
with partner Nidec ASI, formerly
known as Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali,
inaugurated a 90-MW storage system comprising
six 15-MW lithium-ion batteries located at
existing power stations.
Regardless of who wins the next round of
elections, it's clear that new technologies will
have an essential role to play alongside traditional
ones in keeping the European power
grids reliable and flexible. ■
-Lee Buchsbaum (www.lmbphotography.
com), a former editor and contributor to
Coal Age, Mining, and EnergyBiz, has
covered coal and other industrial subjects
for nearly 20 years and is a seasoned
industrial photographer.
51
3. Integration scheme. At the Gaildorf project, wind turbine
towers double as energy storage tanks for water that can be used
to produce hydropower, thereby balancing variable output from photovoltaics
and wind power on the grid. Courtesy: Max Boegl Wind
2. First-of-a-kind. GE Renewable Energy and Max Boegl Wind
AG are building the first wind/hydroelectric generation and storage
system. The wind turbine phase of the project in Germany is expected
to come online in 2017, with the energy storage/hydroelectric
phase following in 2018. Courtesy: Max Boegl Wind
http://www.bit.ly/2gWGvcw http://www.lmbphotography http://www.powermag.com
POWER January 2017

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