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Could car batteries help boost efforts to solve urban energy problems? Researcher Bala Venkatesh of Ryerson's Centre for Urban Energy (CUE) thinks so - and he has secured more than $4.3 million in funding to put the idea to the test.

Venkatesh, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, is academic director of the CUE. A research and technology demonstration centre, the CUE is devoted to the discovery and commercialization of innovative, practical solutions to urban energy issues.

Car batteries are just one of the strategies being explored at the CUE. In the first project of its kind in North America, Venkatesh has secured $4 million worth of car batteries and $328,000 in funding to study how batteries can store energy and return it to the electric network. The ability to house massive amounts of energy - and release it when needed - will be a critical element of the "smart" electric grids of the future.

Currently, the largest way to store energy involves a pumped-storage hydroelectric system - water is pumped up a hill for storage and when it's released, energy is produced. This system, however, cannot sufficiently satisfy the enormous energy storage needs of urban environments.  

This is why incorporating batteries into the electric system could prove useful. Although one battery can only store a small amount of energy, when enough batteries are put together, they could store up to 1.2 megawatt hours of energy. That would supply about 150 homes, at peak load, for four hours.  What's more, batteries could help reduce the amount of pollution that results from existing forms of power generation.

For instance, during daylight hours - when energy is at highest demand - a significant amount of electricity is produced by fossil-fuel fired generators. While those generators may only run for an hour or two, they create a substantial amount of air pollution. By introducing batteries into the system, however, energy that is collected from a renewable source at night could be stored and then released during the day to reduce pressure on the electric grid.

On that note, batteries will be particularly supportive to wind power generation, according to Venkatesh. "Winds don't blow when we wish they would," he says, noting that winds typically blow intermittently and are stronger at night. This means the energy output from wind turbines varies considerably. Batteries, though, could help fill the gap. That is, by releasing the energy stored in batteries during peak demand, electric system operators could decrease the effect of sporadic winds and provide a more consistent flow of energy.  

At the CUE, Venkatesh will investigate both new and used batteries as energy storage devices. Why work with used batteries? Previous research has shown that they still retain 70 per cent of their potential to store energy - a finding that could divert countless old batteries from landfills.

When the research batteries arrive at the CUE next year from the Mississauga-based company Electrovaya, Venkatesh will use new power electronics devices to connect the batteries (which will be housed on the Church Street parking lot on campus) to the Toronto Hydro Electric System. Along the way, he will evaluate how the batteries perform and study how they can be integrated into energy markets from a technological and regulatory perspective. The resulting information will help the provincial government as it seeks to include large-scale batteries in the electric system.

"It's comprehensive research," says Venkatesh. "We want to see how the equipment can fit into the system and explore the business opportunities that batteries could provide."

Venkatesh's research is supported by Hydro One, Toronto Hydro, Ontario Power Generation, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Natural Resources Canada (which has provided funding to Electrovaya to produce the batteries). In addition, the CUE was launched thanks to support from founding sponsors Hydro One, Ontario Power Authority and Toronto Hydro.