Sustainable Energy Ireland and Tapbury Management Limited have initiated a study to ascertain and quantify the full potential economic benefits of coupling vanadium redox batteries with wind farms in Ireland.
The study will focus on Sorne Hill Windfarm, a recently commissioned 32MW wind farm located in County Donegal and managed by Tapbury.
In particular, the study will focus on the projected wind output from phase II at Sorne, which is an additional 6.9MW of wind power due to be installed in autumn 2007, and the benefits of controlled output as well as additional output that will accrue from coupling a 12MWH VRB Energy Storage System (VRB-ESS) from VRB Power Systems to phase II.
The study is expected to be completed by end of October 2006 and will be used to determine the economic potential for battery storage operating in the forthcoming Single Electricity Market in Ireland.
With over 3,000MW of wind energy in the application process in Ireland, there are estimates that there could be a need for in excess of 700MW of storage in Ireland to enable the successful rollout of wind power.