Science & Technology News

[GordMay]

Compressed air, flywheels and more: Energy storage solutions being tested in Canada

Last week, we looked at some of the hydro- and gravity-based energy storage technologies being explored, along with batteries, in order to integrate wind and solar power more effectively into the grid.[1] That’s because clean energy isn’t necessarily generated at the times when people use the most power, and often needs to be saved for later.

Here are some other energy storage technologies that have been tested in Canada in recent years or are being tested and used right now.

Compressed air energy storage

This is similar to pumped hydro, except that it involves using surplus power to compress and pump air instead of water into a space such as a cave or mine shaft. The air is later released to drive a turbine.

The first commercial installation of this kind was built in salt caves in Germany in 1978, and it's still operating.[2]

In Canada, Toronto-based Hydrostor built two demonstration plants:
- A plant in a former salt mine in Goderich, Ont., billed as the world’s first emission-free compressed air facility. It can feed 10 megawatts of power into the grid for up to five hours.[3]
- A smaller demonstration that stored the air in balloons 55 metres below the surface of Lake Ontario.[4]

Flywheels

Flywheels (or rotors) spin at very high rates (up to 50,000 revolutions per minute), typically in a vacuum so air friction doesn’t slow them down. Power is stored as kinetic energy by using a motor to accelerate the flywheels, and energy can be discharged by reversing the process so the flywheel drives a motor or some other electrical generation device.

While this can happen very quickly compared to other types of energy storage, flywheels are not good for long-term storage, but work well to balance supply and demand on a short-term basis.

In Canada, Toronto-based NRStor [5] has a flywheel storage facility that has operated in Minto, Ont., since 2014, and recently bought a second flywheel storage project in Clear Creek, Ont.

A flywheel is used by Montreal-based Tugliq Energy Co. to manage variations in wind power at Glencore’s Raglan Mine Renewable Electricity Smart-Grid Pilot Demonstration Project in northern Quebec.[6]

Energy can be stored by heating or cooling materials such as rocks, salts or liquids and keeping them insulated to prevent the energy from escaping as heat. Later, the heat can be used to produce steam to turn turbines and generate electricity, or can be used directly for heating and cooling.

At least two projects in Canada have done the latter by drawing power from the grid at night during off-peak times:
- Fredericton-based Stash Energy’s system was first tested in Summerside, P.E.I., a few years ago. It’s a heat pump that stores heat in what the company describes as a chemical. The heat can be released to warm homes during the day.
- The Toronto Zoo ran a test of California-based Ice Energy’s Ice Bear system, which freezes water into ice at night during the summer. It slowly melts during the day to cool the air at the zoo’s Caribou Café. However, Ice Energy filed for bankruptcy in December 2019.

Hydrogen

One other way to store energy is to use electricity to generate hydrogen from water using an electrolyzer. The energy can be released later by feeding the hydrogen into a fuel cell, which operates much like a battery. It’s only 25 to 45 per cent efficient, which is much less than most other energy storage methods, but it is reliable, quiet and takes up little space.[7]

The Markham Power-to-Gas facility in the Toronto area, which was commissioned in 2018, is used to help balance electricity supply and demand in Ontario by converting electricity to and from hydrogen.

Hydrogen systems have also been used at a number of projects across Canada in remote locations, including:

The Ramea Wind-Hydrogen-Diesel Project off Newfoundland.
The Hydrogen Assisted Renewable Power project in Bella Coola, B.C., run by Surrey, B.C.-based Powertech Labs, where hydrogen was used to store off-peak power generation from run-of-river hydro generation.
Glencore’s Raglan Mine Renewable Electricity Smart-Grid Pilot Demonstration Project, where it’s used for longer-term power storage.


If you’re interested in a more detailed look at energy storage projects in Canada, Prof. Ian Rowlands at the University of Waterloo has compiled a list.[8]

[1] Gravity power? How to store wind, solar energy without batteries
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/w...rage-1.5936749

[2] Compressed Air Energy Storage
➥ Compressed Air Energy Storage

[3] How an old Goderich salt mine could one day save you money on your hydro bill
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/londo...rage-1.5369478

[4] Canadian entrepreneurs seek path to fossil-fuel-free future
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/c...ture-1.3340326

[5] NRStor
➥ Home - NRStor

[6] Glencore RAGLAN Mine Renewable Electricity Smart-Grid Pilot Demonstration
➥ https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-and-...stration/16662

[7] Fact Sheet | Energy Storage (2019)
➥ https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/energy-storage-2019

[8] A Database for Energy Storage Activity in Canada
➥ Energy Storage Activity in Canada

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Have you read it lately? I doubt if you would say this if you had. The Atlantic has changed dramatically over the last four or five years. The Media Bias Chart (https://www.adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/) puts the Atlantic to the left of the Guardian, and lower for factualness, and I don't think this rating even does justice to what has happened to this publication in the last few years.

The Atlantic is a major platform for Defund the Police, for example, see: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...ionist/613540/. And has been caught using fabricated facts to make the case (the linked article). The Atlantic is also major platform for politicized, unfactual, unreflective writing about the pandemic, and in my opinion has done serious harm to the nation with this. The Atlantic has been involved in numerous journalistic scandals, e.g. https://www.washingtonpost.com/media...ts-correction/. This is a good indicator of extreme tendentiousness of any publication -- when making some partisan point becomes more important than truth and facts. The Shallit scandal is really egregious -- the writer in question had already been caught making up stories out of whole cloth, and plagiarizing other writers. Not only did The Atlantic print some other hogwash from her, it even concealed her identity. This is really egregious. Could never happen at the Nation, which is even more left-wing, but still rigorously honest and factual.


The current Editor in Chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, is notorious for playing fast and loose with facts, most scandalously for inventing stories to justify the Iraq War. See: https://www.salon.com/2010/06/27/goldberg_7/. He is widely considered (from both left and right perspectives) to be a real avatar of what is wrong with American journalism today; read the article in Salon.


A similar thing happened to The American Spectator, over a similar time period. I think what has happened to both of these once-respected publications is a symptom of the general disintegration of our political culture and its descent into post-truth. The once grand Spectator has sunk so low as to be publishing scurrilous nonsense, obvious lies, about stolen elections.

The Atlantic is about even with the Guardian for skewing to the left and frankly I don't feel either is that far left.

If the editor Goldberg tried to help justify the Iraq war that sounds rather right wing. Including that doesn't help your case.

Frankly the American political center would be seen as medium to far right in most of the developed world.

Finally, you brought up The Atlantic's support for "Defund the Police". What's wrong with that? DtP is not intended to eliminate the police, but to remove them from emergency calls where other professionals would be more appropriate. When you only have a hammer most problems look like nails. Similarly when cops get inappropriately sent on calls they react like crimes are being committed even when it's just somebody have a mental break down. And so suspects handcuffed and sitting the back of a cruiser get pepper-sprayed because that's how police deal with 9yr old girls that vocally want their fathers. Ok, that's a somewhat extreme case, but it drives the point home, police are trained to deal with crimes and criminals so that's the lens they tend to see all interactions thru even when that approach is grossly inappropriate.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-girl-n1257630

"Defund the Police" is a catchy slogan that glosses over the nuances and some of the substance of the movement. Sort of like "Right to Work". In the US if you don't live in a "Right to Work" state it's not that you don't have the right to work in that state, it's that you don't have the right to decline union membership if you work for a unionized company. But "Right to work" is a much catchier slogan for anti-union companies and politicians than "Right to Decline" and the media was stupid enough to go along with the phrase.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

I certainly see this in North America; one average income is no longer sufficient to raise a family with, and fewer lower-rung jobs are enough to keep people out of poverty. Yet we still need veggies picked, kids taken care of, hotels cleaned and fast food prepared. Current solution is immigration and migrant workers (legal or otherwise).

How is this handled in the Nordic countries you are familiar with: higher minimum wage? More support for the working poor?

The minimum wage in Finland is zero. There is none and has never been one.


The minimum wage in Sweden is -- the same. Zero. Goose eggs.


Pure market principles dictate wage levels in these countries, and in these countries they are adequate for a decent life.


There isn't really any such thing as the "working poor". The lowest levels of society do ok.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

There isn't really any such thing as the "working poor"[in the Nordic countries]. The lowest levels of society do ok.

Do the lowest rung of workers do ok because:

1. the lowest level of wages are sufficient?
2. government support?
3. both 1 & 2?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Do the lowest rung of workers do ok because:

1. the lowest level of wages are sufficient?
2. government support?
3. both 1 & 2?

Mostly 1 I think.

Speaking from experience, it's impossible to hire anyone in Finland for cheap. Working people have a lot of bargaining power.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Mostly 1 I think.

Speaking from experience, it's impossible to hire anyone in Finland for cheap. Working people have a lot of bargaining power.

Interesting. What's behind that - a tradition of respect for labour, some sort of collective leverage, or some other market dynamic?


btw where I grew up (same town as Gord May), if you were bilingual, you spoke Finnish and Italian . I believe it was or still is the largest Finnish community outside of Finland.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Interesting. What's behind that - a tradition of respect for labour, some sort of collective leverage, or some other market dynamic?

btw where I grew up (same town as Gord May), if you were bilingual, you spoke Finnish and Italian . I believe it was or still is the largest Finnish community outside of Finland.

Finnish and Italian! What a combination. Finnish not being a European language, that is quite a challenge.


What's behing good wages I don't know. There is a high degree of unionization, but I never dealt with a union and am not aware of what influence they may have on wages. I think it's just supply and demand.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Finnish and Italian! What a combination. Finnish not being a European language, that is quite a challenge.


What's behing good wages I don't know. There is a high degree of unionization, but I never dealt with a union and am not aware of what influence they may have on wages. I think it's just supply and demand.

Finland (Suomi) being in Europe kind of makes Finnish an European language doesn't it? I get that it's roots may be from somewhere else.

[SailOar]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

...I tend to stay away from The Atlantic, which is a really tendentious, trashy, left-wing rag, totally given over to the post-truth culture wars polarization. For the intelligent left wing point of view, with much greater depth and intellectual honesty, read The Nation. And for perspective, be sure to read some right-wing journalism as well. National Review highly recommended (the right wing equivalent to The Nation), and avoid the trashy American Spectator for the same reason as one should avoid The Atlantic.....

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Have you read it lately? I doubt if you would say this if you had. The Atlantic has changed dramatically over the last four or five years. The Media Bias Chart (https://www.adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/) puts the Atlantic to the left of the Guardian, and lower for factualness,

I find it more than a little odd that you would pan The Atlantic and tout National Review, and use the Media Bias Chart to support your choice.

The Media Bias Chart gives The Atlantic fairly good marks for political bias (skews left) and pretty good marks for reliable News Value and Reliability (Mostly analysis OR mix of Fact reporting and analysis).

On the other hand, the Media Bias Chart gives National Review far less favorable marks for political bias (hyper-partisian right) and even less desirable marks for News Value and Reliability (Analysis OR High Variation in Reliability).

and I don't think this rating even does justice to what has happened to this publication [The Atlantic] in the last few years.

The Media Bias Chart is updated annually, and the current chart was created this past January.

"Media Bias Chart 7.0 January 2021 Edition"

The Atlantic is a major platform for Defund the Police, for example, see: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...ionist/613540/. And has been caught using fabricated facts to make the case (the linked article). The Atlantic is also major platform for politicized, unfactual, unreflective writing about the pandemic, and in my opinion has done serious harm to the nation with this.

I found their COVID coverage useful. Far better than Faux News (web), which is graded by the Media Bias Chart very close to National Review.

I might point out that Faux News (TV) is rated even worse than the above two.

The Atlantic has been involved in numerous journalistic scandals, e.g. https://www.washingtonpost.com/media...ts-correction/. This is a good indicator of extreme tendentiousness of any publication -- when making some partisan point becomes more important than truth and facts. The Shallit scandal is really egregious -- the writer in question had already been caught making up stories out of whole cloth, and plagiarizing other writers. Not only did The Atlantic print some other hogwash from her, it even concealed her identity. This is really egregious. Could never happen at the Nation, which is even more left-wing, but still rigorously honest and factual....

Journalistic scandals have happened even to those publications rated most highly by the Media Bias Chart, like The New York Times and the Washington Post. What I appreciate about all these publications is that when they make a mistake they clearly and publicly admit to it. That doesn't happen so often with the lower-ranked publications.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

The minimum wage in Finland is zero. There is none and has never been one.

The minimum wage in Sweden is -- the same. Zero. Goose eggs.

Pure market principles dictate wage levels in these countries, and in these countries they are adequate for a decent life.

There isn't really any such thing as the "working poor". The lowest levels of society do ok.

Indeed. The reason they don't have legal minimum wages is because there is a strong union movement in these countries which effectively sets a decent minimum wage.

Summaries:
5 Developed Countries without Minimum Wages

Nordic countries at odds with EU over minimum wage

Legal minimum wages are unnecessary, and I agree undesirable in jurisdictions with strong unions and legal support for such. We could only wish other developed countries like Canada and the USA followed this model.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

btw where I grew up (same town as Gord May), if you were bilingual, you spoke Finnish and Italian . I believe it was or still is the largest Finnish community outside of Finland.

Cool. I didn't know you were a Thunder Bay boy (Fort William or Port Arthur?). I lived there for a decade, and still pass through regularly. Never did learn any Finnish or Italian, but spent my requisite time in The Hoito and the Italian Centre. Thunder Bay's connections to both communities remain strong.

BTW, there are wilderness saunas scattered in remote areas all over the north shore. Nothing finer than a hot sauna after a cold day on the Big Lake .

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Cool. I didn't know you were a Thunder Bay boy (Fort William or Port Arthur?). I lived there for a decade, and still pass through regularly. Never did learn any Finnish or Italian, but spent my requisite time in The Hoito and the Italian Centre. Thunder Bay's connections to both communities remain strong.

BTW, there are wilderness saunas scattered in remote areas all over the north shore. Nothing finer than a hot sauna after a cold day on the Big Lake .

Port Arthur. The one on the hill. Pre-amalgamation dig: Flush twice; Ft William needs the water.

(The Hoito went under last year, the building's been sold, it's debatable whether the restaurant will ever be back -sigh-)

Around TBay, people don't have cottages, they have camps, and most every self-respecting camp has a sauna in the boathouse or close to the dock. A glorious finish to a summer evening.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Port Arthur. The one on the hill. Pre-amalgamation dig: Flush twice; Ft William needs the water.

(The Hoito went under last year, the building's been sold, it's debatable whether the restaurant will ever be back -sigh-)

Around TBay, people don't have cottages, they have camps, and most every self-respecting camp has a sauna in the boathouse or close to the dock. A glorious finish to a summer evening.

As our fellow Thunder Bayite would say: "Indeed." [emoji6]

I actually lived in a "camp" a bit outside of the city, right on the shore of the Big Lake, looking right at The Giant.

I'd heard about The Hoito's troubles. I can't believe it wouldn't be profitable on its own. It was always packed.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

... BTW, there are wilderness saunas scattered in remote areas all over the north shore. Nothing finer than a hot sauna after a cold day on the Big Lake .

The sauna, at Thompson Island, circa 1987 [since replaced].
More Saunas of Lake Superior ➥ http://www.skoac.org/ARTICLES/sauna_info.shtml

[Mike OReilly]

Cool. Here's a couple shots of my previous boat at Thomson and at CPR. Would often stop in at the Loon Hrbr saunas.