Hybrid Energy Storage Systems for Renewable Energy Applications

The paper gives an overview of the innovative field of hybrid energy storage systems (HESS). An HESS is characterized by a beneficial coupling of two or more energy storage technologies with supplementary operating characteristics (such as energy and power density, self-discharge rate, efficiency, life-time, etc.). The paper briefly discusses typical HESS-applications, energy storage coupling architectures, basic energy management concepts and a principle approach for the power flow decomposition based on peak shaving and double low-pass filtering. Four HESS-configurations, suitable for the application in decentralized PV-systems: a) power-to-heat/battery, b) power-to-heat/battery/hydrogen, c) supercap/battery and d) battery/battery, are briefly discussed. The paper ends with a short description of the HESS-experimental test-bed at Chemnitz University of Technology.