GC: n
CT: Banking Energy. The fact that electrical energy must be used in real time, when it’s generated, creates a host of problems. Geothermal plants produce electricity around the clock and need a way to save the electricity they produce at night for more productive times of day. Wind often blows at night when there is no ready market for wind-generated electricity. Most solar facilities cannot bank their energy for periods when the sun is not shining. Utility companies must build and run their generation facilities to meet demand for electrical energy at peak usage times. This production workload often creates excess electricity at off-peak periods, such as late at night and on weekends.
S: http://longviewee.com/about-longview/banking-energy/ (last access: 31 December 2014)
N: 1. banking (n): From bank (n.), an amount of something that is collected; a place where something is stored ready for use.
energy (n): 1590s, “force of expression,” from Middle French énergie (16c.), from Late Latin energia, from Greek energeia “activity, action, operation,” from energos “active, working,” from en “at” + ergon “work, that which is wrought; business; action”.
Used by Aristotle with a sense of “actuality, reality, existence” (opposed to “potential”) but this was misunderstood in Late Latin and afterward as “force of expression,” as the power which calls up realistic mental pictures. Broader meaning of “power” in English is first recorded 1660s. Scientific use is from 1807. Energy crisis first attested 1970.
2. Banking energy. Solar and storage: The expected boost in solar electricity generation is prompting hefty public investments in the U.S. aimed at trying out how different storage technologies might be a suitable fit.
How much storage will be needed to handle the growing amount of solar electricity is subject to debate. Grid operators and some storage project developers say they don’t expect a sharp rise in storage deployment in the next few years because there isn’t a need for it. Shelton believes the need for storage is sometimes exaggerated. “People have looked at renewables and say we should put storage in every renewable facility, which I don’t think a sustainable model. It will be an expensive model,” Shelton says.
Blunden says that SunPower has no plans to add storage to its utility-scale projects under development. “We have robust grids today that already accommodate thousands of megawatts of variable generation. We already have the tools to accommodate variability on the grid,” says Blunden. Grid operators can currently arrange for fossil-fuel power plants to ramp up or down to help regulate the grid’s supply.
In the meantime, concerns over how the grid can deal with a boom in solar energy generation over the long term will continue to inspire new approaches to banking solar electricity. Making these technologies cheap will be the big challenge.
S: 1. http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/bank_1 (last access: 17 January 2015); OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=energy&searchmode=none (last access: 17 January 2015). 2. http://www.pv-magazine.com/archive/articles/beitrag/banking-energy_100001429/86/?tx_ttnews[backCat]=38&cHash=e1d088228fd4d6c054eb0168815e5d08#axzz3NTedb9Ix (last access: 31 December 2014).
SYN: banking of energy
S: GDT; TERMIUMPLUS.
CR: charging pool, electrical energy, energy, hydrogen refuelling station.
