Roundtrip efficiency
Measure of energy loss in storage systems
Roundtrip efficiency is a key performance metric for an energy storage system (ESS) that characterizes the energy lost during a full charge, discharge cycle. It is defined as the ratio of the energy output from the system during discharge to the energy input supplied during charging. A higher round-trip efficiency indicates lower energy losses and operational costs.
The efficiency can be expressed as a percentage using the formula:
Round-trip efficiency greatly affects the economics of energy storage systems, particularly for applications in grid stability, renewable energy integration, and peak demand management.
01Factors affecting efficiency
The round-trip efficiency of a storage system accounts for losses from multiple sources. These can include:
- Conversion inefficiencies
- Heat dissipation
For the green hydrogen and green ammonia the main factors are:
- water electrolysis voltage required for production of hydrogen (the energy required for ammonia synthesis is relatively small). The hydrogen production energy linearly depends on the required voltage (that in turn depends on the catalyst used in anode and cathode);
- efficiency of the power plant that burns the fuel (combined cycle gas turbine provides the highest efficiency of 64% assumed for high-end estimates).
02Comparison of storage methods
Different energy storage technologies exhibit a wide range of round-trip efficiencies. The technology is often selected based on its intended application, such as providing power quality and distributed power or serving as bulk energy storage.
| Storage Technology | Median Efficiency (%) | Efficiency Range (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Lead-acid battery | ~75% | ~60%, 90% |
| Li-ion battery | ~90% | ~85%, 95% |
| Sodium-sulfur battery | ~60%, 90% | |
| Flywheel | ~92% | ~85%, 95% |
| Supercapacitor | 85%, 95% | |
| Superconductive | ~90% | ~85%, 97% |
| Compressed air | ~52% | ~41%, 90% |
| Thermal | ~40% | ~30%, 50% |
| Pumped hydro | ~75% | ~65%, 85% |
| Redox flow | 60%, 75% | |
| Green hydrogen | ~40% | 28, 52% |
| Green ammonia | 23, 42% |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Roundtrip efficiency”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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