Energy Storage in Electric Power Generation Plant from Renewable Sources

During last years the utilization of renewable energy resources has received considerable attention because of the adverse environmental impacts and cost escalation of conventional fuel generation plants. Solar photovoltaic and wind energy industries are two sectors very rapidly growing, and both of them are attracting investments of billions of dollars. However, photovoltaic and wind, like most of the renewable energy sources are characterized by high variability and discontinuity. The high unpredictability of the primary resource makes diffi-cult to forecast the energy production. This is a major trouble for network utility grid management and for the final user, especially in the case of systems operated in island mode. Application of high efficiency energy storage techniques could stimulate in a near future a larger exploitation of renewable energy sources. Energy storage, in fact, could not only improve the quality of the produced power, but, it could also make possible the implementa-tion of sophisticated energy management strategies, fully decoupling the power delivery from power generation.