The proposed Ballynahone Energy Storage project, the first of its kind in Europe, is designed to use iron-air battery technology capable of discharging energy at its full power output for up to 100 hours when fully charged.
This first small 10MW project will be capable of storing 1 gigawatt-hour (GWh) of energy, which is more than half the energy capacity of Turlough Hill, while future projects in development will be capable of storing up to 8GWh.
This new form of multi-day storage is made from some of the safest, cheapest and most abundant materials on the planet: low-cost iron, water and air. The principle of operation is reversible rusting: while the battery is discharging, it breathes in oxygen from the air and converts iron metal to rust; while the battery is charging, the application of an electrical current converts the rust back to iron, and the system breathes out oxygen.
This breakthrough technology has the potential to absorb enormous amounts of surplus Irish renewable energy during times of high output and provide the renewable power back into the Irish grid system when it is needed most: for example, during extended periods of extreme weather, grid outages or low renewable generation. The battery will also simultaneously relieve grid congestion issues faced by wind and solar projects, reducing the need for new overhead power lines. This battery technology can provide reliability and resiliency to the country’s grid system while delivering energy at a low cost.
Paul Blount, Portfolio Director at FuturEnergy Ireland, says: “Ireland’s power sector decarbonisation targets are among the most ambitious of any country globally. If we are to realise these ambitions, it is not enough to simply keep building more wind and solar projects. We need new technologies with the ability to time-shift very large energy volumes at low cost if we are to fully decarbonise our power system in a manner that is affordable for consumers.
“Iron-air technology was selected by FuturEnergy Ireland following a robust procurement process. Based on the analysis completed by our team, we believe this technology has the potential to be a game-changer for the Irish power system. Form Energy, the US company behind this pioneering iron-air technology, is making a big impact in other energy markets. It will shortly commission a high-volume manufacturing facility in West Virginia and recently received funding of $147 million from the US Department of Energy towards an 85MW, 8.5GWh battery storage project in Lincoln, Maine, which will be the largest battery by energy capacity in the world when delivered
