Adding Energy Storage To Solar and Wind
It goes without saying that integrating storage to wind and solar energy adds value. Not only does it provide dispatchable power from sources that would have otherwise been intermittent, but it also allows the owner to sell “ancillary services” such a frequency and voltage waveform regulation to grid operators in need of them.
OK, so that much is certain. But what form should this storage take? In particular, does it makes sense to implement storage into each turbine in a wind farm? GE apparently thinks so. Here’s an article that announces a new level of wind product called Brilliant that goes in this precise direction.
The link says the turbines are incorporating 50 kWh of battery storage for a 2.5 MW turbine.
That’s 1/50th of a single hour production at nameplate capacity.
This is more about power smoothing for higher quality power than it is for anything else.
The batteries have a power level of 350 kW, so they can smooth any power fluctuations of up to ~14%. Everything else they mentioned is just nonsense for that level of storage. They might as well be bringing AA batteries for grid level power regulation.