Energy conversion and storage

Our planet is over-populated and its limited resources, unevenly distributed among the world’s people,
are being used at an accelerated pace. The growth of world population and economic standard puts up
the consumption of energy. Now a day the world is faced with a dilemma. On the one hand there is an
ever growing demand for electricity, particularly in the developing world; on the other hand, there is
increasing pressure to cut emissions of greenhouse and other gases from fossil fuel power stations. There
is also a need to preserve precious energy resources. To solve this problem, power utilities and research
establishments have stepped up investigations on alternative or renewable energy resources such as
nuclear power, hydroelectric power, wind power, solar energy, hydrogen, geothermal energy and so on.

In view of the fact that the amount of available conventional energy resources become scarce with time,
the advance development of new or renewable energy technologies and improvement of conventional
expertise are needed to fulfill the energy demand of the world in the future. A good sympathetic of the
mechanisms involved in every step of energy transformations from the primary to the end-use forms of
energy is needed for both the improvements and innovations of the technology. And the general
principles of energy conversion and storage is concerned with the transformation of energy from sources
such as fossil and nuclear fuels and the sun into conveniently used forms such as electrical energy,
rotational and propulsive energy, heating and cooling and storing for a certain period.

The conversion of raw materials into usable energy and storage of the energy produced are two very
important aspects of everyday life. Whilst most of the electricity generated is converted from primary
energy sources (fossil, nuclear, hydro), there are many other techniques increasing in popularity. The
most important is the conversion of sunlight into electricity using solar cells. Solar power stations are
now feeding power into local electricity distribution networks. Solar collectors are used to harness the
heat of the Sun to heat water or buildings. Fuel cells are becoming a commercial reality for generating
electricity in a variety of applications. Substantial effort has been devoted to exploring the generation of
electric power from the effect of gaseous plasma or liquid metal moving through a magnetic field, also
known as magnetohydrodynamics. Thermoelectric and thermionic conversion processes are being
investigated for possible use in space vehicles.
In the aspect of energy storage the best example is the battery technology. Batteries are used for both
energy conversion and storage. Improved technology is leading to longer life and better performances.
Battery storage plants are now used for load leveling applications in power systems. Hydrogen is a
useful energy resource but its role in the future is more likely to be in the area of energy storage and
transportation. Energy can be stored by other than chemical means. These include: mechanical energy
storage, primarily flywheels; capacitor banks, which are used for reactive power compensation or for
supplying a large amount of energy in a very short time for pulsed power applications; inductive energy
storage; compressed air energy storage in natural underground caverns and aquifers; superconducting
magnet energy storage which is often used for power system control; and thermal energy storage using
phase change materials, solar ponds, hot water tanks or ice.