Subscribe to never miss an important update!

Intermittency is Renewable Energy’s Major Issue but there are Solutions

Intermittency

  • Context (IE): Gravity is emerging as the best bet in solving renewable energy’s biggest problem, intermittency.

Intermittency in Renewable Energy

  • Intermittency in renewable energy refers to the unpredictability and variability of energy production from sources like wind and solar, which depend on weather conditions and time of day.
  • Types of intermittency
    • Diurnal Intermittency
    • Seasonal Intermittency
    • Weather-Dependent Intermittency
    • Intra-Hour Intermittency
    • Spatial Intermittency
    • Resource Availability Intermittency
    • Random Intermittency (due to random events like equipment malfunctions)

Challenges from Intermittency in Renewable Energy

  • Grid Reliability: Intermittent energy sources can cause sudden power fluctuations that disrupt grid stability, leading to blackouts or voltage issues.
  • Matching Supply and Demand: Coordinating intermittent energy supply with fluctuating electricity demand is a significant challenge. It can result in overproduction or underproduction.
  • Energy Storage Costs: Energy storage systems often mitigate intermittency. However, these systems can be expensive to implement and maintain.
  • Grid Infrastructure: The existing grid infrastructure may not be well-suited to handle renewable energy sources’ variability and intermittent nature. Upgradation can be costly and time-consuming.
  • Resource Variability: The variability of energy can make long-term energy planning challenging.
  • Investment Uncertainty: Fluctuations in energy output can affect the return on investment and project profitability. This can make investors in renewable energy projects uncertain.
  • Backup Generation: Backup sources like fossil fuels are sometimes necessary when renewable energy is scarce, which can impede efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Technological Challenge: Creating effective technologies to address intermittency, like advanced energy storage and smart grids, can be challenging regarding R&D and deployment.

Gravity-Based Storage: Solution to Intermittency

  • Gravity-based energy storage uses the force of gravity to store energy.
  • This is achieved by raising heavy objects to a high elevation when the electricity demand is low and generating electricity by lowering the heavy objects when the demand is high.

Gravity-Based Storage: Solution to Intermittency

  • There are a number of different gravity-based energy storage technologies, but they all work on the same basic principle.
    • Example 1: Pumped hydro storage uses excess electricity to pump water uphill, then releases it downhill to generate electricity when needed.
    • Example 2: Compressed air energy storage compresses air when there is excess electricity and then expands it to generate electricity when needed.
  • About 96% of the world’s energy storage comes from pumped hydro storage.

Benefits of Gravity-based Energy Storage

  • High efficiency: These highly efficient storage systems recover most energy when discharged.
  • Scalability: These storage systems can store large amounts of energy, making them ideal for intermittent renewable energy.
  • Reliability: They are very reliable, with few moving parts and no emissions.

Challenges of Gravity-based Energy Storage

  • Cost: These systems can be expensive to build because they require a lot of land and infrastructure.
  • Land use: These systems require a lot of land, which can be challenging in areas where land is scarce.
  • Response time: These systems can be slow to respond to changes in demand.

Intermittency Situation in India

  • In India, grid managers face the challenge of sustaining a monthly addition of about 1,000 megawatts (1 GW) from renewables to the grid.
  • Policy makers believe India needs to quickly develop energy storage options, as it is the world’s third largest producer of renewable energy, with ~40% of its electricity coming from non-fossil fuels.
  • India’s green initiatives led to a 24% reduction in GDP emission intensity from 2005 to 2016, but they also posed challenges for a grid powered mainly by renewables.
  • GoI is exploring two options: hydrogen and hybrid generation models blended with off-stream pumped storage.
  • The Cabinet approved a policy for increasing green hydrogen production and its use as a fuel.
  • The Power Ministry surveyed pumped hydro sites, and hydro PSUs are given targets for such schemes.
  • They are considering opencast mines for potential pumped hydro sites.
Sharing is Caring !!

Newsletter Updates

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss an important update!

Assured Discounts on our New Products!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

0

The downloads are available to only those members that have purchased:

Current Affairs for UPSC CSE 2024

OR

Current Affairs for UPSC 2025

Already purchased? Log in to download

Looks like you dont have any downloads yet! Subscribe!

Subscriber Discounts

Active Subscription

Renewal Discount

Discount on CA 2025

Discount on CA 2024

CA 2024

NA

NA

NA

CA 2023

NA

NA

NA

Geography

30%

NA

NA

Environment

NA

NA

Agriculture

NA

NA

Science

NA

NA

These discounts are auto-applied to the respective Product Price based on your active subscriptions.

Your Active Plans

Looks like you dont have any downloads yet! Subscribe!

Year(s) = Validity of the Downloads

The validity of the Current Affairs for UPSC 2025 is from July 2023 to December 2025 (30 months).

The validity of the Current Affairs for UPSC 2024 is from July 2023 to December 2024 (18 months).

For the rest of the products, the validity is as follows:

1 Year Validity == Validity of the Download links (both Static & the Subject Related Current Affairs) is 1 Year from the date of purchase.

2 Years Validity == Validity of the Download links (both Static & the Subject Related Current Affairs) is 2 Years from the date of purchase.

We strongly recommend a 2 Year Plan as the UPSC Cycle lasts for close to 2 Years.

For example,

If you purchase the notes with “Download Validity == 1 Year,” on 08/12/2023, then you will be able to download the Static & the Subject Related Current Affairs files till 08/12/2024.

If you purchase the notes with “Download Validity == 2 Years,” on 08/12/2023, then you will be able to download the Static & the Subject Related Current Affairs files till 09/12/2025.

If we bring out the Updated (New) Editions of the Static Files within your subscription period, you will be able to download them without paying anything extra.

Once the payment is made, you need to log in to the Downloads Page to download the files (check your email for the login details).

Newsletter

Never miss an important update!