How to store excess wind power underwater - BBC news
Great to see our Supergen Co-I Dr Jonathan Radcliffe commenting for BBC News!
With 17 new wind farm projects planned for Scotland, the UK's offshore wind power capacity is set to more than double.
But what happens when the wind is blowing, the turbines are cranking out electricity and there's no demand for it?
It's already a problem. In 2020, enough electricity to supply more than one million homes was wasted due to a lack of storage, according to a report by KPMG that was commissioned by the power company Drax.
But one firm, which won a 2022 Best of Innovation award at the CES technology show earlier this year, believes it has the solution.
Dutch startup, Ocean Grazer, has developed the Ocean Battery, which stores energy below the wind farm.
When there is excess electricity the system pumps water from an underground reservoir into tough, flexible bladders that sit on the sea bed. You could think of them like big bicycle inner tubes.
