Potential of Redox Flow Batteries and Hydrogen as Integrated Storage for Decentralized Energy Systems

Abstract

The requirement for low-cost access to energy storage technologies is increasing with the continued growth of renewable energy. The growth of the hydrogen economy is also expected to emerge to improve energy security and meet the growing pressures of environmental requirements. Hydrogen and redox flow batteries (RFB) have promising energy storage characteristics that can allow increased penetration of renewable energy and reduction in grid energy. The strong synergy between natural gas and hydrogen anticipates that new efficient methods of hydrogen production such as microwave plasma processing of natural gas might have a leading role. Additionally, the improvements in the carbon allotropes properties and their cost are expected to influence large-scale energy storage system costs. A technical and economic comparison of vanadium and all-iron RFB with hydrogen will be explored on an individual and integrated basis. The findings show hydrogen’s capability for bulk energy storage and highlights the benefits of integrated storage. This proves that integration of various storage systems can play an important role for the future development of the decentralized renewable energy systems.