The Gyle Premier Inn in Edinburgh has just installed a 100kW Li-ion storage battery, enough to power about 70 hair dryers. Rarely in the history of renewable energy has a battery so tiny attracted the attention of so many. Here, based on limited information, I make an attempt to scope out the specifications of this battery and how it might assist in cutting the hotel’s costs, if at all, and whether it makes any difference if it does.
Everything we know about the E.On Li-ion battery is contained in these excerpts from the 7 Jan, 2019, which was reported by numerous other web sites:
Whitbread-owned Premier Inn is trialling a new 100kW lithium ion battery at the 200-room site in Edinburgh. The battery is 3m3 in size and weighs approximately five tonnes. It has capacity to run the Gyle hotel – including powering meals cooked at its Thyme bar and grill – for up to three hours. The battery takes two hours to fully charge and will be used for at least 2-3 hours per day on-site. The battery allows the Premier Inn to avoid increased peak-time energy costs and generate revenue by offering energy support services to the National Grid. The installation is expected to save the hotel £20,000 per year.
In summary:
- Power output 100kW
- Charge time 2 hours
- Discharge time up to 3 hours
- Full charge-discharge at least once/day
- Size 3 cubic meters
- Weight Approx. 5 tonnes
I looked for E.On battery specifications on the web but couldn’t find any. It is in fact now virtually impossible to obtain battery specifications from UK web sites without requesting a quote whether you want one or not.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Finally we have an article from a respected academic institution that highlights the prohibitive costs of going renewable with Li-ion battery storage backup. This article has received minimal publicity on the web, so here we give it a little more by making it our feature story. Then on to OPEC; the oil tanker crisis; Kuwait fracks in Canada; Azerbaijan gas; Rio Tinto exits coal; Russia fuels its offshore nuclear plant; Moorside nuclear in doubt; blackouts in South Africa; Australia’s National Energy Guarantee; peaking plants in Europe; an “alarming collapse” in UK renewable investment; 5,000 UK churches go renewable and how heatwaves increase deaths in UK but decrease them in Spain.
