Virtual Power Plants The Next Big Innovation In Power Generation
The demand for electricity has been skyrocketing recently, and this trend is expected to continue with a 25% projected over the next 5 years. This boom has been spearheaded by a massive buildout of data centers and a continued push for electrification away from fossil fuels. This has put increased strain on the power grid and calls for new innovative generation methods to be used. One of those new technologies is virtual power plants, which have the potential to shake up the industry.
Virtual power plants are a network of decentralized power generators that have flexible storage and production. The goal of a virtual power plant is to effectively manage its generation sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, to optimize power generation. If it is cloudy and the generation of renewables is lowered it can increase the generation from other sources to ensure that a consistent supply of electricity is supplied to the grid. This allows smaller generators to come together and act as one source to trade at the same level as large power plants do.
Virtual power plants were much less feasible a decade ago; this is mainly due to battery prices being seven times what they are now. The batteries required to make virtual power plants function efficiently now aren’t just much cheaper, but the technology has improved, and they are more energy dense. By changing the composition of the batteries to include more nickel, they can store more electricity, when combined with the breakthroughs in the chemical composition of the battery solution that make the batteries more stable It's clear this technology is ready to be implemented on a large scale. Machine learning has also advanced, which allows them to run even more efficiently, making virtual power plants even more appealing.
The technology and economics make sense for virtual power plants, and once the regulations catch up, they have the potential to account for a considerable portion of our electricity mix. Become part of the next wave of electricity generation by considering our Anorra turbine here.