Energy Storage Basics: Sean White’s New Book

Instructor Sean White just published his latest book, “Energy Storage Basics” on Amazon. Sean has written other books, but it’s still a big deal and we want to congratulate him on this latest release.

We asked Sean why he wrote the book and who it’s for. Here’s what Sean said:

Energy Storage is the hot topic in the solar industry. As we produce more intermittent renewable energy from solar and wind, there becomes a greater need to be able to bottle up this sunshine and wind. Some of the reasons are more obvious, like storing the energy from a solar system to use it at night or when it is cloudy. There are many other uses for energy storage that are less widely understood, but are just as important.

Ancillary services can provide benefits to the grid. Many times the grid will have to spend extra resources in order to keep everything running smoothly, in case there is a sudden increase or decrease in demand. If the demand goes up too fast, the frequency or voltage can decrease and if the demand goes down too fast, then the opposite can happen. Other ancillary services include changing the shape of the sine wave in order to send power over long distances or to react to the needs of large spinning motors on the grid.

The book Energy Storage Basics and my HeatSpring Energy Storage Associate Boot Camp came to be in order to get people up to speed on energy storage, just as my PV Associate Boot Camp gets people up to speed on Solar PV. Although NABCEP does not yet have an Energy Storage certification, this course will get someone ready for when they do. This course also counts for NABCEP PV CEUs and not the book is part of the course!

Many people have taken my PV Associate classes and read my book Solar Photovoltaic Basics over the years and now there is a new demand for all things “energy storage”. I have seen a lot of advanced energy storage material out there, which can be over a lot of people’s heads. I like to explain things so everyone can understand. In this book and course I get into all forms of energy storage, but especially the newer technologies that have to do with lithium-ion batteries. I find that a lot of people do not know the difference between lithium batteries and lithium-ion batteries and how to incorporate the NEC into an energy storage system. Those that read our book and take our class, will store this knowledge in their brains, which is the most valuable form of storage.