The noise generated by the operation of battery energy storage systems mainly comes from their cooling systems, but other components (such as inverters and transformers) also generate noise. Nowadays, more and more battery energy storage systems are deployed in more densely populated areas, which brings annoying noise problems to adjacent communities.
"Battery noise has become a concern over the past six months," Furlong said. "One of our teams has visited a dozen customers in Europe and every one of them has raised concerns about noise and the steps they would like to take to mitigate it."
Noise is certainly a bigger concern for densely populated Europe than in countries such as the US, but Furlong said it was Australian battery storage customers who were first to notice it, and the country has far more land suitable for battery storage than Europe.
Furlong added in an interview with industry media at the recent US Energy Storage Summit: "I remember that the first customers who were concerned about the noise of battery energy storage systems were from Australia, but now this is a global issue and everyone is paying attention to it. and attention."
Today's battery energy storage systems are becoming more energy dense, requiring additional cooling equipment. Wärtsilä has launched a new product, its 20-foot containerized battery energy storage system has an energy storage capacity of 4MWh, compared with the previous solution's 1.6MWh, and comes with additional noise suppression system.
However, more complex cooling systems mean that noise does not necessarily grow as energy density increases. Inverter and battery energy storage system supplier Sungrow said that the energy storage capacity of its latest generation product container battery energy storage system has increased from 2.5MWh to 5MWh, but the maximum noise has been reduced from 79 decibels to 75 decibels.