In Detail-Many consider geothermal to be an around-the-clock clean energy resource, but according to a Princeton-led study in collaboration with startup Fervo Energy, operating new geothermal plants flexibly could provide the best value for the grid.

By leveraging the inherent energy storage properties of an emerging technology known as enhanced geothermal, the research team found that flexible geothermal power combined with cost declines in drilling technology could lead to over 100 gigawatts’ worth of geothermal projects in the western U.S. — a capacity greater than that of the existing U.S. nuclear fleet. Such an innovation would transform geothermal energy from its niche status on the grid today into a major component of a decarbonized future. The researchers published their analysis January 15 in Nature Energy.

“People generally think of geothermal as this always-on, baseload energy source, but we’ve shown that there’s a lot of extra value to be had in operating these plants in a different way,” said research leader Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Since the early 20th century, people have been harnessing the earth’s heat to produce electricity, but these conventional geothermal power plants require a specific set of conditions: hot, permeable rocks close to the earth’s surface, and some sort of fluid to transport heat up from underground. These requirements have limited traditional geothermal energy to only a handful of favorable locations in the western United States and Hawaii — places with naturally occurring geysers, volcanoes, and hot springs. Consequently, geothermal plants generated only 0.4% of the total electricity in the U.S. in 2022.

Yet advances in drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies have unlocked the enhanced geothermal approach, which removes the need for permeable rocks and greatly expands access to the heat that already exists far beneath our feet.

A diagram illustrating the enhanced geothermal approach employed by Fervo Energy. Fluid is first injected at the injection well, flows through engineered fractures in subsurface rock, picking up heat along the way, and then returns to the surface via production wells to generate electricity. The process creates a self-contained underground radiator that can function as a type of energy storage system (courtesy of Fervo Energy).
In the approach, engineers dig two or more boreholes into impermeable rock that extend thousands of feet below the earth’s surface, then drill similar distances horizontally, and subsequently create fracture networks in the horizontal sections to connect those holes deep underground. Afterward, they inject a fluid into one borehole, which heats up as it travels through the fractures. That heated fluid can be pulled up through the other wells and subsequently used to generate electricity.

In details – The Group intends to produce electric cars and commercial vehicles at the same price as combustion engines The Group intends to produce electric cars and commercial vehicles at the same price as combustion engines for easy and wider adoption in the cost-competitive Indian market. According to industry estimates, the price difference between EVs and ICE vehicles is almost 30 per cent.

Three quick strategies

Sajjan Jindal, Chairman, JSW Group told business line that renewable energy needs can be fulfilled by having Energy Storage at an affordable price and this can be achieved through three quick strategies such as the right battery technology at a reasonable price that can make the cost of electric car and commercial vehicles on par with combustion engine vehicles and de-couple the supply chain from China. The Group will focus on high-end research with an objective to produce electric vehicles which are “Designed Indians for India” and redefine the way people commute and power their lives by enhancing EV penetration.

“We are at a crucial juncture where we have to resolve the issues around Green House Emissions in a quick time frame and affordable manner,” he added. Moreover, he said the country needs to reduce the huge import bill of crude oil of about $100 billion and this is likely to increase rapidly as the economy grows. Jindal, who once expressed a wish to create a Tesla-like company in India, said “What Tesla is today is because of the government of California… the way they were supported and guided is a well-known fact. If Tesla is the world’s most valued and admired company then it’s due to the government. In a way, history is being repeated”.

“I always believed when India becomes $10 trillion economy, then some of the States will have to be trillion-dollar economy- like what we witnessed in China and USA. Odisha must lead the way because it has all the ingredients,” he added. JSW has invested about ₹35,000 crore and another ₹1,25,000 crore is in pipeline apart from ₹40,000 crore in the EV project which will be executed in timely manner. The Group shares the state government’s vision to build Nua- Odisha which will lead the way in sustainable mobility and energy storage, boosting Chief Minister’s dream of “Make in Odisha for the world”, said Jindal.

win-win proposition

Odisha can be the first State where combustion engines used in transportation and mining sector can be eliminated completely which can create win-win proposition for both local entrepreneurs and people while reducing carbon footprint and lead not only in India but in the entire world, said Jindal. Asserting that India has so much to catch up with China, he said China has sold 10 million EVs and India has sold hardly 0.1 million. China has set up 2000 GW battery plant and India has not set up even a 1 GW plant.

]]> https://www.eqmagpro.com/galp-and-powin-join-forces-for-a-major-energy-storage-project-in-portugal-eq/ Sat, 10 Feb 2024 09:33:00 +0000 https://www.eqmagpro.com/?p=325605 In Short : Galp, a Portuguese energy company, and Powin, an energy storage solutions provider, have partnered for a major energy storage project in Portugal. This collaboration suggests a concerted effort to enhance energy storage capabilities, promoting the integration of renewable energy sources and grid stability in the region.

In Detail : Portuguese multinational energy corporation, Galp, and US-based energy storage system provider, Powin LLC, (Powin) have partnered to install a 5MW/20MWh utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) at Galp’s solar power plant near Alcoutim, in the southern region of the Algarve in Portugal.

Galp already operates several projects in the region with a combined capacity of 144MW, and this partnership marks Galp’s maiden move in the hybridization of its solar power production portfolio. As for Powin, Alcoutim marks its inaugural project in Europe which could pave the way for Powin to emerge as a leading supplier of energy storage solutions in the growing market.

“This particular project with Galp is bigger than its MW impact – it is the beginning of a new partnership and is Powin’s first project in Europe following the opening of our Madrid office. Europe is expected to deploy over 90 GWh of utility-scale battery energy storage projects by 2030, and we are well positioned to support this demand along with the wider EMEA region’s rapid energy storage growth,” said Powin CEO, Jeff Waters.

The large-scale batteries installed at the site will enable Galp to store the solar energy produced in periods of high generation and deploy it during periods of high demand, maximizing the energy’s value.

“As Galp keeps growing its renewable energy capacity aiming to transform its industrial base to produce green fuels and sell renewable energy to its clients, storage solutions are key to ensure a steady supply of electrons to our businesses,” said Georgios Papadimitriou, Galp’s executive director in charge of Renewables, New Business, and Innovation. “Batteries also add to the competitiveness of our renewable energy portfolio by making solar and wind power available when they are most needed,” he added.

Galp is one of the largest producers of PV solar energy in the Iberian peninsula with 1.5GW capacity projects in operations.

In Detail : Leading energy storage solutions provider in North America, Powin LLC (Powin) has forged a strategic partnership with global technology major, Hitachi Energy to expand its footprint in the energy storage business. As part of the deal, Hitachi Energy will take majority ownership in eks Energy (EKS), a power electronics and energy management solutions provider for renewables and energy storage projects.

The strategic partnership intends to build on Powin’s battery expertise while drawing from Hitachi Energy’s experience in the electric energy industry. Further, the new alliance is also aimed at ensuring Hitachi remains at the forefront of the massively growing energy storage industry.

“The market has made it clear that it needs and wants energy solutions powered by best-in-class power electronics integrated with control and digital capabilities,” said Massimo Danieli, Managing Director for Hitachi Energy Grid Automation Business Unit.

“EKS has an impressive product deployment footprint in North America and Europe, and under Powin has further extended their global reach. With this significant addition to our portfolio, Hitachi Energy is ready to address the demands of the fast-growing global BESS market with speed and scale.”

Together Powin and Hitachi will collaborate on deeper technical and commercial collaboration which will include the integration of EKS’s technologies into Powin’s product roadmap, the inclusion of Powin’s batteries in Hitachi Energy’s solutions at the edge of the energy system, and joint marketing activities. Another key reason for the strategic alliance is to provide EKS with access to Hitachi Energy’s engineering and control capabilities and wider market reach.

While Powin retains a significant minority ownership in EKS, the company intends to stay active in EKS’ product development and marketing efforts. EKS was previously purchased by Powin in September 2022.

“Hitachi Energy’s expertise in research and development and impressive grid-edge capabilities will accelerate EKS’ continued growth and aid our shared mission to reinvent the global energy storage industry with safe, reliable, and scalable solutions,” said Powin CEO Jeff Waters.

Powin has deployed over 3,200 MWh of battery systems worldwide and has another 11,900 MWh projects under construction the company stated.

In Detail : The project will be located next to the National Grid substation in Monk Fryston, Yorkshire, minimising the need to build additional grid infrastructure.

SSE Renewables, a unit of SSE, has reached a final investment decision (FID) on a 320MW battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Monk Fryston, Yorkshire, UK.

One of the largest BESS projects in the country, this 320MW/640 megawatt-hour project is SSE Renewables’ third project to reach the FID stage after its 50MW Salisbury and 150MW Ferrybridge BESS projects.

Construction is expected to start in late 2023 or early 2024. Once completed, the BESS can run for up to two hours, storing and releasing power back to the National Grid during times of peak energy demand.

This helps balance energy supply and demand more effectively while maximising the availability of renewables to power the grid during times when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing.

Battery storage is now considered to have a major role in helping the UK and Ireland in their plans to decarbonise.

The project will be located next to the National Grid substation in Monk Fryston, minimising the need to build additional grid infrastructure.

SSE Renewables solar and battery director Richard Cave-Bigley stated: “It is fantastic that we have taken a final investment decision on the Monk Fryston BESS project, one of the largest battery storage projects in the UK.

“This is another positive step towards reaching our net-zero targets, enabling us to provide stored energy to the grid and provide balancing energy supply to support intermittent renewable energy generation, and, in doing so, strengthening the UK’s energy security.

“The project team has worked very hard to reach this landmark milestone and I am looking forward to construction starting in the coming months.”

In October 2023, the company’s Dogger Bank wind farm generated its first power.

Being built in three phases, Dogger Bank A, B and C, it will feature 277 turbines with a combined capacity of 3.6GW.

SSE Renewables holds a 40% stake in the project. The remaining stakes are held by Equinor (40%) and Vårgrønn (20%).

In Detail : The Bridgeport fire department’s headquarters will soon have a new lithium ion battery energy storage system, part of a pilot project funded by Connecticut Innovations.

Bridgeport announced Tuesday it will use technology from Danbury-based manufacturer Cadenza Innovation, which makes rechargeable lithium-ion battery systems that can be used to power buildings and vehicles.

The goal is to help Bridgeport save on energy costs, while also reducing its carbon footprint, according to the city.

Connecticut Innovations, the state’s quasi-public venture capital arm, provided $26,000 toward the pilot project, according to Lauren Carmody, CI’s chief marketing officer.

Bridgeport and Cadenza Innovation will analyze energy usage at the fire headquarters, and generate a report on the battery system’s impact, including its safety and effectiveness.

According to Cadenza, its cloud-connected battery system stores power from other energy sources, which can then be used later, such as during weather-related outages or peak energy usage times.

The city of Bridgeport has also expressed interest in installing Cadenza’s technology in other city-owned and operated buildings following the pilot demonstration at the fire headquarters.

Bridgeport Fire Chief Lance Edwards said the city is partnering with Cadenza to install the modular battery to showcase its potential to reduce electricity consumption.

In Detail : It wasn’t that long ago that a California energy storage news article would cover an installation such as one in San Jose with a 4 MW/28 MWh capacity. This project was completed in 2015, just 8 years ago, and yet the state of California has vaulted its total energy storage capacity today to just over 6,600 MW. In 2015, the total was less than 100 MW.

California’s rapid energy storage growth is a huge success and the Golden State is expanding its energy storage further. The California Energy Commission has an online dashboard illustrating the growth.

Remember when the knock on solar power and wind power was called the “intermittency problem?” But what happens when there is no sun and no wind, critics would say. Battery storage was, and still is, a big part of the answer. Ten years ago in California there wasn’t that much energy storage capacity though, meaning batteries may have not seemed like enough of a solution. Flash forward less than a decade, and California is solving clean energy intermittency and therefore the old “problem” is incrementally being faded into non-existence. If 6,600 MW doesn’t sound like that much, consider it is enough to supply electricity to about 6.6 million homes in California for 4 hours. California is nowhere near being finished with its energy storage expansion, as it plans to install far more as it moves toward operating fully on clean, renewable electricity.

How did the state of California grow its energy storage capacity to a little over 6,600 MW as quickly as it did?

California has targets of 19,500 MW of storage by 2035 and a goal of 52,000 MW by 2045. Because of these targets and the state’s efforts to speed the buildout of clean energy, California is the largest energy storage market in the world right now. Please see our Chair David Hochschild’s remarks on this.

We expect the momentum in storage buildout to continue as the CEC and its partner agencies (CPUC, CAISO) work diligently to address interconnection and energization issues. We will report more on this in our forthcoming IEPR report (a draft is due out in January), which this year specifically focuses on barriers and solutions to accelerate the connection (including interconnection, energization, and associated system upgrades) of clean energy technologies with the electric grid.

Of the more than 122,000 residential, commercial, and utility-scale battery installations, what is the breakdown for these types?

Residential: 843 MW, 119,483 installations

Commercial: 540 MW, 2,492 installations

Utility-scale: 5,234 MW, 106 installations

What are some of the primary benefits to having such a large energy storage capacity?

As the state shifts to wind and solar to meet California’s goal of 100% clean energy by 2045, energy storage is critical to make it work.

Wind and solar often produce more energy than can be utilized at the specific time it’s generated, but both resources also have periods when energy is not being generated at all (after sundown, and when winds are low). The main benefit of storage is the ability to store clean energy when it’s generated so it can be discharged during these low/no generation periods.

In California, electricity demand is highest in the late afternoon and early evening hours when the sun sets, causing solar resources to drop off before winds pick up later in the evening. The battery storage fleet provides a critical energy bridge during this time of day.

Are most of the state’s battery system lithium-ion battery chemistry? What other chemistries are being utilized, and are flow batteries being used?

Yes, the bulk of the state’s energy storage systems are lithium-ion. It is typically battery paired with wind or solar installations.

Will a portion of the energy storage growth come from homeowners who pair home energy storage with their home solar power systems?

Yes, this is the residential category in the dashboard. But as you can see, it is dwarfed by utility-scale storage projects in terms of total MW.

It would be great if everyone could back up the intermittent power from wind and solar plants with energy stored as low-cost, zero-carbon hydrogen gas. But hydrogen can be hard to store.

Last month, when the Royal Society advised the British government to start building underground caverns to store megatons of hydrogen gas, it noted that the United Kingdom would need to store 1,000 times as much energy in this way as its pumped hydropower reservoirs can hold, and far more than batteries can feasibly provide. And the U.K. is fortunate to have hollowed-out underground salt deposits in which to put the gas. Others do not. The Pacific coast of the United States, for instance, has no appropriate geological formations. They are also rare across China, Africa, and South America.

Such cavern-challenged places may instead benefit from a creative workaround developed by German researchers: converting hydrogen to methanol. “Methanol presents a nice alternative to hydrogen, since as a liquid you can store it in tanks anywhere,” says energy-modeling expert Tom Brown, who heads the Department of Digital Transformation in Energy Systems at the Technische Universität Berlin.

Today in the journal Joule, Brown and Johannes Hampp, a doctoral researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, in Germany, report that storing energy as methanol can be cost effective. The key is to integrate equipment producing hydrogen, methanol, and electricity, all of which are being commercialized or are in industrial development.

Low-carbon methanol production is already scaling up to replace the dirty bunker fuel that propels big ships. And the specific type of power generator required is being demonstrated at a 25-megawatt plant in Texas.

The LaPorte, Texas, generating station, covered by IEEE Spectrum in 2018 along with process inventor Rodney Allam, burns natural gas with pure oxygen from a dedicated air separator. The Allam cycle, which bears his name, combusts fuel in a circulating stream of carbon dioxide that’s heated and compressed to form a pseudoliquid known as a supercritical fluid. After the supercritical gas expands to drive a turbine generator, excess carbon dioxide created by the combustion reaction is easily bled off. This allows a process to capture the carbon without the inefficiencies associated with separating carbon dioxide from a regular turbine’s exhaust.

NET Power, the LaPorte plant’s developer, sells the captured carbon dioxideto oil fields, which use it to boost petroleum extraction. That ends up diminishing the Allam cycle’s climate-benefiting effect. But investors seem unfazed: NET Power raised over US $675 million earlier this year to build a 300-MW commercial-scale plant in Texas, which the company plans to start operating in 2026.

Repurposing the Allam cycle to burn methanol in an all-renewable energy system was first proposed in 2019 by engineers at the Netherlands’ University of Twente. Their integrated storage system, a closed loop that contains the Allam cycle, works as follows:

Electrolysis splits water molecules into their constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen;
Hydrogen is made to react with carbon dioxide, producing methanol;
Methanol is stored in tanks until required as a backup for shortfalls in renewable power generation;
Methanol and oxygen are burned in the Allam cycle to generate power; and
Surplus carbon dioxide loops back to step No. 2, where it is used to synthesize more methanol.

Brown and Hampp simulated renewable power systems for Germany, Spain, and the U.K., optimized each to use the methanol storage loop, and ran the resulting grids through the 71 years of weather recorded between 1950 and 2020. The resulting simulations tapped methanol to supply 7 to 9 percent of the power demand in an average year by storing enough for as much as 92 days of power generation.

According to Brown, a single tank of 200,000 cubic meters can hold enough methanol to generate 580 gigawatt-hours of electricity—enough to power Germany, Europe’s largest economy, for 10 hours.

Overall, they calculated that the cost of electricity from the grids would be between €77 and €94 per megawatt-hour delivered. That is well within the range that grid operators pay today to balance supply and demand via natural gas-fired power plants. Their modeling found that the methanol backup is also 29 to 43 percent cheaper than that of alternate grids backed up with hydrogen that must be stored in above-ground steel vessels, then converted to power in gas-fired generators.

Today’s report confirms that hydrogen stored below ground, in salt caverns, is the cheapest option of all—about 14 to 17 percent cheaper than methanol-stored energy. Brown says that means using hydrogen directly is generally preferable where geology provides the required salt caverns.

Thomas Overbye, director of Texas A&M University’s Smart Grid Center, says power-grid planners absolutely need to begin preparing for what his group calls renewable resource droughts. “We’re putting a lot of eggs in these renewable baskets. Most of the time they’re going to work as advertised, but we’re going to run into situations where they don’t,” says Overbye.

Research led by Overbye’s recently graduated doctoral student Jessica Wert, now a power systems engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, found that U.S. states regularly experience periods of 48 hours or more where wind or solar resources fall well below seasonal norms. California, for example, experienced two-dozen “solar resource droughts” between 1973 and 2022. In the same period Iowa experienced 158 wind droughts, three of which lasted a full week.

Overbye says storing energy by converting wind and solar to hydrogen is a potential solution. But he and Wert note that there are other options, as well. One is building long-distance interconnections between regions, and thus enabling one region experiencing a wind or solar drought to tap another region that may have a surplus.

Brown, however, notes that transmission lines can take a decade or longer to build. He notes that an advantage for methanol-based energy storage, in particular, is that it avoids the need for new infrastructure that covers long distances. In fact, says Brown, the ability to put an integrated methanol system anywhere could make it the go-to storage option even in some regions that could store hydrogen more cheaply underground.

Methanol may even share the storage lift in the relatively compact U.K., based on Brown’s assessment of the Royal Society’s hydrogen storage plans. “You’d need a ton of electricity pylons and cables to bring electricity to the electrolyzers at the salt caverns, or a ton of hydrogen pipelines to move the hydrogen around,” says Brown.

Methanol storage might be much faster to build, and Brown says speed matters: “We’re now at the point of climate breakdown, where speed is more important than efficiency.”

The Columbia Energy Storage Project would utilize an innovative design by Energy Dome S.p.A. to deliver 10 h of energy-storage capacity by compressing carbon dioxide gas into a liquid. When that energy is needed, the system converts the liquid CO2 back to a gas, which powers a turbine to create electricity. By storing the CO2 in the liquid phase at ambient temperature, Energy Dome is able to reduce the typical storage costs associated with compressed-air energy storage, without having to deal with cryogenic temperatures associated with liquid-air energy storage, the company says. The first commercial demonstration facility of the CO2 Battery — a 4-MWh system located in Sardinia, Italy — was launched in June 2022.

Development of the Columbia Energy Storage Project is being led by Alliant Energy in partnership with WEC Energy Group, Madison Gas and Electric, Shell Global Solutions U.S., the Electric Power Research Institute, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Madison College.

The facility will be built south of Portage, Wis. in the town of Pacific, near the current Columbia Energy Center. Alliant Energy expects to submit project plans to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission in the first half of 2024. Pending approval, project construction could begin in 2025 with completion in 2026.

Westford, USA, June 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — According to SkyQuest’s latest global research of the Battery Energy Storage System market, increasing deployment of utility-scale energy storage projects, growing adoption of behind-the-meter energy storage systems, integration of battery energy storage with renewable energy projects, the emergence of virtual power plants and energy-sharing models, development of advanced battery technologies, focus on grid modernization and resilience, implementation of energy management systems and software, expansion of microgrid installations, the rise of energy arbitrage and revenue optimization, growing interest in community energy storage initiatives are the trends that aid in the market’s growth.

Browse in-depth TOC on “Battery Energy Storage System Market”

• Pages – 242
• Tables – 67
• Figures – 74

A battery energy storage system (BESS) is a system that stores energy in batteries and then releases it when needed. BESS is used in various applications, including power grids, renewable energy, and transportation. The BESS market is growing rapidly, due to the increasing demand for renewable energy and the need to improve the reliability of power grids.

Get a sample copy of this report:

https://www.skyquestt.com/sample-request/battery-energy-storage-system-market

Prominent Players in Battery Energy Storage System Market

• Amazon Fresh
• Walmart Grocery
• Instacart
• Kroger
• Aldi
• Costco
• Target
• FreshDirect
• Peapod
• Shipt
• Thrive Market
• HEB
• Publix
• Safeway
• Wegmans
• Albertsons
• Trader Joe’s
• Fairway Market
• Whole Foods Market
• Amazon Prime Now

Browse summary of the report and Complete Table of Contents (ToC):

Lithium-ion Batteries Demand to Grow Substantially in the Forecast Period

Lithium-ion batteries dominated the global online market due to their high energy density. Over the years, the cost of lithium-ion batteries has been decreasing due to advancements in technology, economies of scale, and increased production. This cost reduction has made lithium-ion batteries more affordable and accessible, contributing to their battery energy storage system market dominance.

Utility is the Leading Application Segment

In terms of application, the utility is the leading segment due to the increasing demand for grid stability and reliability. In addition, as the integration of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power increases, utilities need energy storage systems to address the intermittent nature of these sources. Battery storage allows for the efficient storage and dispatch of excess renewable energy when the demand is low and provides a reliable power source during periods of low renewable energy generation.

Asia Pacific is the leading Market Due to Government Support and Policies

Region-wise, Asia Pacific is one of the largest growing markets with a huge government support and policies. The Asia Pacific region has witnessed significant growth in renewable energy installations, particularly in countries like China and India. Battery energy storage systems are crucial for integrating and managing intermittent renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power. The increasing deployment of renewable energy projects has driven the demand for energy storage systems in the region.

A recent report thoroughly analyzes the major players operating within the Battery Energy Storage System market. This comprehensive evaluation has considered several crucial factors, such as collaborations, mergers, innovative business policies, and strategies, providing invaluable insights into the key trends and breakthroughs in the market. Additionally, the report has carefully scrutinized the market share of the top segments and presented a detailed geographic analysis. Finally, the report has highlighted the major players in the industry and their ongoing endeavors to develop innovative solutions that cater to the ever-increasing demand for Battery Energy Storage Systems.

Speak to Analyst for your custom requirements:

https://www.skyquestt.com/speak-with-analyst/battery-energy-storage-system-market

Key Developments in Battery Energy Storage System Market

• In March 2023, LG Energy Solution, a leading battery manufacturer, acquired NEC Energy Solutions, a provider of BESS solutions for commercial and industrial customers.
• In April 2023, BYD, a leading Chinese battery manufacturer, acquired StorEn Networks, a provider of BESS solutions for utilities and renewable energy developers.

Key Questions Answered in Battery Energy Storage System Market Report

• What specific growth drivers are projected to impact the market during the forecast period?
• Can you list the top companies in the market and explain how they have achieved their positions of influence?
• In what ways do regional trends and patterns differ within the global market, and how might these differences shape the market’s future growth?

While some large institutions maintain an ‘Uninterrupted Power Supply’ (UPS) room with rows of batteries to cover contingencies, many homes across a majority of Indian cities don’t use inverters anymore. It isn’t as if power cuts do not happen, but the concept of load-shedding, is thankfully not something today’s generation is aware of because of massive improvements to both electricity generation, transmission & distribution.

But what if I told you that the need for energy storage is going to come back? Not because load-shedding is making a comeback, but because of distinct trends in the energy sector. The first is of course, the rise of renewable energy, particularly intermittent sources like wind and solar energy. The Government of India has really pushed renewable energy and according to the Invest India website, India’s non-fossil fuel energy stood at 178.79 Gigawatts of power, including large hydroelectricity projects. This was 43% of India’s total energy generation capacity. India added 9.83% of renewable energy generation capacity in 2022 and as of May 2023, India has an installed generation capacity of 66.7 Gigawatts of solar energy.

But now let me tell you why this is also becoming problematic. In 2022, Indian energy demand rocketed up 8%. At a pace faster than any large economy in the world. This is of course a great sign of the economic progress that India is making, but 149.7 Terawatt hours of consumption is a lot and if the first few months of 2023 are any indication, 2023 will also set new records for power consumption as well. And you can’t really generate solar energy at night or wind energy on days the wind doesn’t blow. This is why, despite moves to ‘clean up’ energy production, thermal power generated from coal will remain the core of India’s energy network. This is where the need for energy storage or banking comes in. Innovations in this space can be extremely useful for policy makers and consumers both.

Now layer this demand supply mismatch, with another trend happening right now- a massive growth in electric vehicles, particularly two wheelers and three wheelers. The batteries on some of these vehicles can store between 2-10 kilowatts of power, enough to power a small household when a vehicle is not being used. It is only a matter of time before electricity boards begin differential pricing of power, for peak and off-peak demand, so why shouldn’t consumers take advantage of cheap power supply and buy off peak energy and store it on an asset they already own. Many modern electric vehicles, like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 are already equipped with a Vehicle to Grid (V2G) system, which allows them to supply as much as five kilowatts back into the grid when there is a power outage. Or even to charge up a picnic in the wilderness.

But there is also going to be home and commercial-grade power storage solutions for renewable energy. With the extent of solar and wind energy that India is establishing, energy could be stored in large banks of batteries, which may be Lithium batteries or some other alternate chemistry such as Sodium-Ion which is still in its nascent commercial stage as of now. But at these large solar-power farms, if we are generating hundreds of gigawatt hours of power, we can store a lot of it for use for when the sun doesn’t shine. Similar for wind power farms. Recently, there was a period of time in the US state of California when ‘Energy Storage’ was the single largest supplier of electricity demand to the grid. The state having saved enough solar and wind power in batteries.

Until now only hydroelectric dams have really had any form of energy storage, because the potential energy of the water can be preserved by closing the sluice gates. But modern batteries offer great opportunities even at home, particularly with the fantastic push towards rooftop solar by some state governments such as in Haryana. Even though these modules generate only 10-20 kilowatts, owners may not need to use it while it is being generated. Without storage, one has to sell the excess power back into the grid, but with modern battery storage solutions you could store it at home as well, because there is a possibility that the grid might not ‘want’ your power or is not offering you a great price for the power during the day when there is already surplus supply. If you stored the energy you generate, you could use it for yourself at night when solar generation shuts down, or sell it to the grid when the power rates are peaking. And all of this can be managed by software.

At the same time, as we learn more about how batteries age and how they can be managed, home energy storage solutions will also give a second lease of life to electric vehicle battery packs. This will make the entire ecosystem of electric vehicles and energy storage far more sustainable. The fact is that energy storage will be a major enabler towards India’s goal of net-zero by 2070, while ensuring that Indians, even those who have not been born yet will have access to reliable and affordable energy.

Source: PTI

Next year, the town of Colchester, England, will transplant four roughly 6-meter shipping containers onto the site of a new mixed-use development. The shipping containers, which house a Frankenstein-like assortment of machine parts—motors repurposed from Volvo truck engines, giant tanks of compressed air, huge silos of piping hot sand—are produced by a company called Cheesecake Energy.

Despite its name, Cheesecake Energy isn’t in the food business. The company is building these shipping-container systems, which work like giant batteries that store energy as heat and pressurized air, rather than a chemical reaction. (Cheesecake’s name is derived from a nerdy acronym for their technology.)

Cheesecake is part of a cohort of companies trying to meet a growing need for alternative forms of energy storage. As countries transition away from fossil fuels to green sources of energy like wind and solar, there will be natural lulls in energy production due to weather conditions. Energy consumption also tends to peak during early evening hours, which is inconveniently right when solar energy output decreases. Energy-storage technology is seen as a way to help even out the imbalance in supply and demand by storing excess energy during periods of high production and using it when needed.

Recent years have seen the construction of large lithium-ion battery farms that do just that. But even energy-dense lithium-ion batteries have limitations, says Xiaobing Liu, who leads the Thermal Energy Storage Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Batteries that can hold large amounts of energy are large and expensive, requiring a substantial investment to install. They gradually lose capacity with each discharge-and-recharge cycle, and they can be fire hazards. The raw materials needed to build lithium-ion batteries are also difficult to come by, and mining those minerals raises environmental and human rights issues.

“It’s a rare material, and lots of places need batteries,” Liu said. “Electric cars need lots of batteries, laptops need lots of batteries. So there’s strong competition for the materials, especially if electric cars become more and more popular.”

That’s why interest in unconventional solutions for energy storage has taken off in recent years. Companies have looked into pumped hydroelectric systems that generate electricity from water flowing out of large artificial reservoirs, underground caverns that store hydrogen fuel electrolyzed from water, elevators that lift blocks of concrete and harvest their potential energy as they fall. Some companies have landed on thermal storage.

Storing Energy in Air and Sand

The mixed-use development in Colchester will operate its own microgrid, which gets electricity from an 8-megawatt solar farm on its property. Excess energy generated by the solar farm during the day will be stored in Cheesecake Energy’s thermal energy storage system and accessed during the evening by local businesses and residents.

Here’s how it works: During the day, Cheesecake’s system takes the excess electricity and uses it to turn a motor. The motor drives a piston that compresses air, which gets hot as it’s compressed. The system then wicks off the heat from the compressed air and stores the heat in silos of sand or gravel. The compressed air, now cool and easier to store, is housed in a large air tank.

Cheesecake’s cofounder likes to use a bathtub analogy when comparing the company’s technology to lithium-ion batteries. Energy storage has two main factors—how fast it can be charged and discharged (the spigot) and how much total energy it can hold (the bathtub). Batteries have a powerful spigot, but that comes at the cost of a small tub.

“The bathtub is cheap for us, so when it comes to how much we can store, we can increase that capacity quite cheaply,” says Michael Simpson, the cofounder of Cheesecake Energy. “For batteries, it’s quite expensive to make the bath bigger.”

When it comes time to generate electricity, Cheesecake runs the system in reverse. The compressed air, once heated, drives a piston that runs a generator to produce electricity. The whole system, which can hold five to 12 hours’ worth of electricity discharging at full power, costs a half-million pounds. An additional set of shipping containers will double the storage capacity, and so on.

Don’t Waste Heat Energy

While Cheesecake’s system is primarily an electricity-in, electricity-out storage device, there are other thermal energy storage companies that specialize in releasing stored energy as heat. It’s a somewhat overlooked form of energy, but critically important—energy in the form of heat is how half of the total energy use in the world is consumed, as much as electricity and transportation combined.

A large part of that is due to industrial use by large, energy-hungry industries such as steelmaking, chemical manufacturing, and construction. The startup Kyoto Group, based in the Netherlands, is targeting this industrial use of heat with their thermal storage system, which stores energy in the form of molten salt. Their system can take electricity or heat as input and releases hot air or steam in the range of 170 to 400 degrees Celsius as output. That temperature delivery is well suited for the food industry and paper industry, which have tested pilots of Kyoto’s system. One molten salt thermal-storage device installed at a manufacturing facility outside Copenhagen stores electricity from the grid when it’s cheap and releases steam at 180 degrees Celsius to make cardboard.

Buildings are another big consumer of heat, accounting for almost half of total heat consumption, mostly for space and water heating. They also consume 75 percent of all electricity used. That’s why Liu’s Thermal Energy Storage Group at ORNL is focused primarily on buildings. The group’s vision is for more and more buildings to eventually include thermal storage systems. The group is researching ways to integrate thermal storage systems directly into existing building infrastructure like roofs, walls, and floors in ways that don’t take up a lot of space.

Liu hopes thermal energy storage will eventually be as ubiquitous as air conditioners, but he says it will probably take a lot more time because the benefits of the investment are not as obvious. Whereas early adopters of air conditioning could see direct benefits from investing in one (staying cool during hot summer months), home and building owners of thermal storage systems may not.

Commercial customers may see benefits first—they have to pay a demand charge during times when there’s high overall demand on the grid, so they can save money by pulling energy from thermal storage at those times. But Liu says residential customers don’t see demand charges. Instead, the benefits from thermal energy storage investments go to utility companies by helping take some pressure off the grid.

He says widespread adoption of thermal energy storage may have to be driven by external forces, like the government or utility companies introducing time-of-use rates for residential customers. If a substantial amount of solar or wind energy is on the grid, customers would be able to save money by purchasing and storing electricity during low-rate times.

“California already has this kind of time-of-use rate from electricity generated by solar or wind,” says Liu. “So that may create this need for storage…And then there will be a competition between thermal and electric [storage].”

Heating Up the Grid

On some level, getting value from energy storage systems is an optimization problem. When does it make sense to buy electricity directly from the grid? And when is it best to pull from storage reserves or purchase extra grid electricity to store? Maplewell Energy, a Colorado-based company that makes software that automates these decisions, hopes to make that easy for commercial customers. The software pulls data from different sources—weather reports, utility companies, and records of past energy use—to predict what to do to get the best price for electricity overall.

The company recently piloted its software at an enterprise convenience store, using the convenience store’s own refrigeration system as a type of thermal energy storage. Commercial refrigerators are required to be kept below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but they have a wiggle room of a few degrees above freezing to play with. Before 4 pm local time, when overall demand from the local grid is highest and most expensive, Maplewell’s software instructs the store’s refrigerators to cool down to the lower end of the threshold so the store can avoid purchasing energy for refrigeration during the peak period.

Matthew Irvin, the CEO of Maplewell, believes optimization software like this can help with concerns that the grid will run out of capacity trying to support a full transition from fossil fuels to electrification.

“Getting a 100 percent decarbonized grid is nothing but an optimization problem,” says Irvin.

The companies and researchers working on thermal energy storage are optimistic about their technology. If it succeeds, thermal storage devices could help consumers buffer against fluctuations in renewable energy supply and prevent overloading the grid during periods of high demand, all while using materials that are environmentally friendly, simple, and cheap.

But the space is still young. Both Cheesecake Energy and Kyoto Group were founded in 2016, Maplewell Energy in 2019, and even the ORML’s Thermal Energy Storage Group was formed only in December 2022. Companies still struggle with limited public awareness of the technology, and it takes time to scale up from building pilot systems to manufacturing thermal storage products on a large scale. Tim de Haas, the chief commercial officer for Kyoto Group, said the industry also faces regulatory and policy challenges.

But there’s also a growing demand for effective energy storage solutions. Cheesecake’s Simpson said the company’s target customers include those wanting to build new offices or factories but can’t because the local grid is at capacity.

“We’re having real issues in the U.K., where developers want to build housing estates or new commercial developments, and they’re basically told, ‘You can have enough power for that in 2030,’” says Simpson. “The grid isn’t moving fast enough for them.”

Source: spectrum

Vietnam, a global export hub, has been attracting global investments thanks to its array of free-trade deals and cheap labour.

For Chinese companies, the country offers the added allure of an alternative to the increasing cost of labour in China and protection from increasing Sino-US trade friction.

One of the two companies eyeing fresh Vietnam investments is Xiamen Hithium Energy Storage Technology, a startup that is expanding in Europe and the US.

Hithium has approached officials and industry managers in Vietnam to potentially invest up to $900 million to build a plant on more than 30 hectares of industrial land, one person with direct knowledge of the discussions said.

If the investment is finalised at that figure, the company would become one of the largest foreign investors in Vietnam.

A second source familiar with the discussions said the investment under consideration would be worth at least $500 million.

Hithium, which is based in the southeastern port city of Xiamen, said in a statement that it had no new deals near closing. It also said it plans to expand its production capacity to 70 Gigawatts (GW) by the end of this year from just 15 GW now.

Vietnam’s growing renewable market

The second Chinese company eyeing investments is Growatt New Energy, which already leases a pre-fabricated plant in Vietnam.

Growatt, a producer of battery systems and energy storage inverters for residential and commercial use, is planning to spend about $300 million to acquire about 15 hectares of industrial land to build a new factory, the first source said.

A separate source familiar with the discussions also said Growatt plans to expand in Vietnam.

Both companies are in talks with multiple authorities and industrial parks about potential locations for their plants, the sources said.

Vietnam is a growing market for renewable energy as its booming economy grapples with frequent power cuts due to increasing demand, climate change and a weak power grid. It has yet to pass legislation, however, that would permit the use of energy storage facilities to strengthen its power network.

Hithium, which currently does not have a presence in Vietnam, specialises in manufacturing stationary energy storage products, including cells and larger containers that help manage the intermittent supply of energy from solar or wind farms.

The global stationary energy storage market is estimated to jump in value to roughly $224 billion by the end of the decade from just over $31 billion in 2021, according to Precedence Research. Major companies in the market include Tesla, Panasonic and Philips.

Source: Reuters

The imminent advance is the result of steady investment in energy storage over the past decade, capped by an exponential rise to $1.8 billion last year, emergence of a handful of technologies, such as flow batteries, thermal, mechanical storage and hydrogen, and ambitious net-zero targets.

“The emergence of support schemes like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the U.S., carbon prices of $100/tCO2 in the European market and increasing penetration of renewables have created a fertile ground for developing new LDES solutions,” said Selene Law, Senior Associate, Energy & Power.

Stakes are high for 19 companies that have successfully demonstrated technology to store electricity for more than 10 hours, with many achieving levelized cost of storage to below $200/MWh, making them competitive with incumbent Li-ion batteries.

“It will not be a one-size-fits-all situation; different LDES solutions will be required for different geographies and technologies,” said Law. “For example, Form Energy’s iron-air technology will not be suitable for balancing solar power. Conversely, vanadium flow will not be the best solution for seasonal storage.”

*Includes Seed, Series A, Series B, and Growth Equity through April 2023. Does not include Li-ion batteries.

“Despite policy support and higher carbon prices, most LDES solutions are not cost competitive yet. I’d like to see more co-operation between innovators and a bigger buy-in from the utilities to see this market really take off,” she added.

Key findings:

• Varied tech needs. Innovation has focused on improving efficiency using brownfield infrastructure and common materials. Simultaneously, it is shaped by geographies. For example, mechanical storage would be suitable for countries with abundant land and high solar penetration, whereas hydrogen would be appropriate for areas focused on wind energy with salt caverns available.

• MIT startup ahead. Form Energy, a startup spun out of the prestigious MIT with technology to make batteries using iron, has attracted the most investment in energy storage — raising nearly $800 million over the past two years.

• Four startups show promise. Energy Dome, Antora Energy, Rondo and Energy Vault are among LDES startups braving high development costs and stiff competition from incumbent publicly traded companies. Each has raised substantial amounts over the last few years. Energy Dome leads the pack with a successful demonstration in under three years.

• EU shows only limited policy support. EU’s Electricity Market Reform or RePowerEU, the European Commission’s plan to make the region free from Russian fossil fuels before 2030, has provided little policy support to LDES. Still, high power prices support higher storage costs, offering market opportunities.

• Global leaders. Spain, Canada and Australia are among leaders outside the U.S. Spain has set a target of 20 GW in grid-scale storage by 2030, while Canada aims for 12 GW. In Australia, the province of New South Wales is targeting 2 GW, while the country’s Renewable Energy Agency is funding eight storage projects to come online by 2025.

Source: PTI

India will offer 37.6 billion rupees ($455.2 million) in incentives to companies setting up battery storage projects totalling 4,000 megawatt hours (MWh) under a scheme announced earlier this year, two government sources said.

The scheme is intended to boost battery storage projects critical to India’s ambitious plan to expand its renewable energy capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 and cut the cost of battery energy storage from the current 5.5-6.5 rupees per unit.

Battery storage, used to back up intermittent renewable power supply to stabilise the grid, is an evolving technology, and there are very few large-scale operational projects in the world. The scheme intends to develop large-scale battery energy storage systems to bring down costs through competitive bidding.

The government will provide so-called viability gap funding – incentives to cover risks of developers of critical infrastructure projects that are or may turn out to be economically unviable – in the form of grants for three years, the sources said.

It also expects private investments worth 56 billion rupees through the scheme.

The disbursement of the contracts will be made in five tranches until 2030-31, one of the sources said, requesting anonymity since the proposal is not yet public and needs federal cabinet approval.

Contracts will be awarded through a competitive process, with the company with lowest bid selected, they said. India’s power ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

A number of Indian conglomerates including Reliance Industries, Adani Power and JSW Energy have plans to set up large-scale battery plants.

The proposal, announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech on Feb. 1, will next be taken up for decision by the country’s cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No timeline for the approval has yet been given.

India has 37 MWh of battery storage capacity currently. According to estimates from its power sector planning body, it requires 236 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery energy storage in addition to 27 GW pump storage projects by 2031-32.

Source: PTI

The guidelines call for the rental of land at discounted rates on a yearly basis. They also permit the use of depleted mines for PHES projects and offer a one-year extension for projects whose construction is put off while awaiting forest and environmental clearance.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy estimates that 5 GW of PHES capacity will likely be installed over the next five fiscal years, of that, 2.8 GW is under construction, and the remaining may be added at potential sites, totalling 29.9 GW.

Furthermore, according to Crisil Ratings, infrastructure investments in storage are essential given the growing proportion of renewable energy produced outside of peak times.

The MoP guidelines provide a special emphasis on PHES projects due to their advantages over battery energy storage systems (BESS), including their approximate 50-year project life without considerable maintenance expenses, low residual waste generation, and extended storage times without much discharge.

By providing ancillary services like reactive assistance and peak hour shaving, which have the potential to enhance cash flow by around 5% yearly, the guidelines open the door for PHES projects to increase income streams.

Moreover, PHES now has a 5 GW operational capacity, which was mostly set up by the federal, state, and local governments and their agencies. They have a combination of independent reservoirs and dam connections.

Source: PTI

Long-duration refers to the amount of time a power system can discharge electricity. That is to say, once a battery is fully charged, the duration is equal to the number of hours that it can deliver power at a certain power capacity. This is different from long-term storage, which refers to the amount of time a system can store energy before discharging it.

As large amounts of wind and solar resources are connected to the grid, long-duration energy storage could prevent curtailment of renewable energy sources resources during periods of excess generation. Curtailment occurs when the transmission grid is overloaded and unable to absorb all the clean and affordable electricity being produced. This results in a deliberate reduction of electricity output. Energy storage can alleviate curtailment by facilitating the efficient use of clean energy resources so that extra production can be stored and used when it’s most needed. As renewable deployment increases, the grid flexibility provided by long-duration energy storage will become more relevant and useful.

Long-duration storage could also offer greater grid flexibility because it can store large amounts of energy. A long-duration storage system can charge when electricity demand is low and discharge later when it is most needed. When transmission systems need costly upgrades, energy storage can be deployed to help with these services instead. Longer duration systems can further extend the life of transmission equipment by operating more frequently and for longer periods. As extreme weather events and outages become longer and more frequent, long duration discharges could better accommodate turbulent grid conditions and offer greater resiliency.

Long-duration energy storage is assumed to have full capacity value since it could discharge for up to a day. The capacity contribution of a resource determines how much that resource counts towards resource adequacy requirements. The marginal effective load carrying capacity (ELCC) for storage under 12-16 hours would likely still decline over the course of increasing storage deployment, but not as rapidly as short-duration storage. (Read this post by my colleague Mark Specht for a full rundown on what ELCC is and why it matters.)

How long is long-duration?

There is no single definition of “long duration”, but according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the most commonly cited number is 10+ hours. NREL also states that context around application is important when discussing what is meant by “long duration.” For example, a 6-hour battery might be able to provide firm capacity–the ability to meet peak demand and cover any other adverse conditions like blackouts–in some situations, while in others, a storage system with 100 hours of duration might be more necessary.

Just like short-duration energy storage, long-duration energy storage technologies come in many forms and chemistries. The most common types are thermal, electrochemical, and mechanical. Because long-duration energy storage is gaining a lot of recent attention, the landscape of technologies is constantly changing.

Long-duration energy storage technologies can be categorized by their physical attributes as well as their respective capabilities such as round-trip efficiency (RTE) and technology readiness level (TRL), and whether they have geologic constraints, which can provide some indication as to the best suitable applications for each technology. Source: Department of Energy, Pathways to Commercial Liftoff.

Can’t grid operators and utilities just pick the best long-duration energy storage technology that is readily available and use that?

Yes and no.

There are tradeoffs with different technologies. Pumped hydro storage, which has been around for a long time, has relatively good efficiency and isn’t as expensive as some other options, but there are limits to where we can build this type of system and environmental impacts to consider. (A huge dam probably won’t be appearing in the middle of Times Square any time soon!)

An electrochemical system like a metal-anode battery has fewer siting limits, but right now it’s expensive and hasn’t been deployed as much as older technologies. As technology providers continue to test their long-duration energy storage systems in different scenarios we’ll likely see some “weeding out” of the technologies that don’t keep up. (Read this blog post by my colleague Guillermo Pereira to understand how important pilot projects can be.)

Having a variety of long-duration energy storage options is helpful

One advantage of having a power grid with different long-duration energy storage options is that it allows for a more diverse supply chain, potentially alleviating some supply constraints that arise when only sourcing for one specific chemistry.

Lithium-ion batteries are currently a hot topic of conversation because of the huge demand for the materials that make it up like lithium, nickel, and sometimes cobalt. This growing demand plus the fact that these materials are finite, create a market for supplies that becomes constrained. With this in mind, further development of long-duration energy storage should consider what other options are out there that use abundant materials and result in a sustainable supply chain. It is important to explore the landscape of technologies available in order to best meet the grid’s needs and make the transition to renewable energy.

Deployed energy storage capacity will continue to grow significantly over the next few decades. Over time, longer duration technologies will be deployed as these options develop and (hopefully) become more cost-effective.

A quick snapshot of energy storage, using some of NREL’s data, shows us that 12-hour pumped-hydro storage has dominated the U.S. storage market for a long time. Over time, more batteries of varying sizes have come online. As the need for storage increases, longer duration options are deployed. By 2050, NREL expects around 9.5 gigawatts of 10-hour battery storage to be deployed. That’s enough to power over 7 million homes for, well, 10 hours!

Challenges ahead for long-duration energy storage

This type of energy storage can sound like an ideal solution for many of our grid needs. Because renewable sources like solar and wind are not always available at night or when the wind isn’t blowing, renewables are often critiqued for how well they can (or can’t) be dispatched—that is, for their ability to be turned on and off to supply power on demand. With energy storage, the energy harnessed by renewable resources can be stored and used on demand. But right now, long-duration energy storage is not yet the magic bullet we wish we had.

As we saw above, many promising long-duration energy storage technologies are still emerging and maturing and are not yet commercially available. What this usually means is that, for the time being, they are expensive and may lack confidence from investors, developers, or utilities in real-world scenarios. Regulatory bodies like state public utility commissions may hesitate to approve projects that take on a large cost with technologies that have yet to be field-tested as much as some other alternatives.

In addition to that, energy storage is not a resource that has been very well-defined across energy entities like utilities, regional transmission organizations (RTOs), or the power industry in general. Energy storage is not treated the same as solar or wind, and without standardized definitions and understanding of its value, it can be tricky to figure out exactly how to use it.

Long-duration energy storage is not just a shiny and exciting discussion topic. It’s a resource that can help usher in very significant amounts of reliable and resilient clean energy for our planet. It can work together with renewable energy to deliver power when we need it most, and conserve it when we have plenty of sun and wind to go around. As energy demand grows across sectors of our economy, it’s crucial that we understand the key role long-duration energy storage can play in reducing the energy industry’s reliance on fossil fuels and meet our needs with solutions that are better for our communities and our planet.

Source: ucsusa

One challenge facing the energy transition is that several key forms of renewable energy rely on intermittent natural conditions, such as sunlight or wind, to generate energy. These sources are often referred to as variable renewable energy, or VRE. Although renewable energy sources are plentiful, until recently, there were few promising ways to store excess energy produced by wind or solar for later use. Now, batteries based on abundant and safe iron can offer reliable storage to meet growing energy needs.

An Energy Storage Solution: Iron-Air and Iron-Flow

Utilities are working with companies like Tesla to install lithium-ion batteries to provide storage for the grid; however, these batteries provide only short bursts of charge, generally storing enough electricity to discharge for about four hours. The electric grid, which needs reliable access to electricity 24/7 regardless of active production, needs greater storage capacity if it is to be powered by intermittent renewables.

Iron-flow batteries are one possible solution. They operate by moving two electrolyte solutions across a carbon membrane, which generates electricity. The iron-flow batteries currently on the market, like those developed by ESS, can provide between six and twelve hours of storage and so occupy the niche of inter-day storage. This timeframe is ideal for addressing a renewable energy issue known as the “duck curve,” which refers to the mismatch between solar energy production and peak energy demand. Solar production is highest when the sun is shining and demand is relatively low (during temperate days). In the evenings, demand skyrockets but solar production stops. This creates a challenge for the renewable energy industry, one that ESS believes iron-flow batteries can solve.

While iron-flow batteries could play an important role by providing a safer and more affordable mode of inter-day storage, a truly resilient electric grid needs to be able to store days of energy. Multi-day storage would ensure that power can be maintained through periods of low energy production, for example during severe weather or following a disaster.

Iron-air batteries, like those produced by Boston-based battery company Form Energy, can store 100 hours of energy, providing coverage for a days-long gap in renewable energy production. Iron-air batteries use a process called “reversible rusting” to store electricity, converting iron into rust and rust back into iron in a cycle that can store an electrical current. The batteries first absorb air, causing the iron they contain to rust. The chemical reaction that creates rust also generates electricity, which can be dispatched as needed. Reversing the current (i.e., recharging the batteries) turns the rust back into iron, readying the system for another round.

Lithium-ion batteries overtook iron-air as the default battery technology because they can be made much smaller. Lithium-ion batteries power most phones, laptops, electric vehicles, and more. They can pack a big punch in a small package, making them an attractive part of the ongoing charge towards electrification. Nevertheless, iron-air batteries may be poised to fill a key electrification need by providing reliable, safe, multi-day storage that can easily plug into existing grid infrastructure. That is because iron has several advantages compared to lithium.

The Iron Advantage

In addition to being able to store less energy than iron-based alternatives, lithium-ion batteries have other requirements that make them less-than-ideal for grid storage applications. Above all, lithium-ion batteries need lithium, which does not come cheap. Lithium is comparatively rare and is in high and growing demand, as the production of electric vehicles increases dramatically. Lithium demand is set to skyrocket even further with the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of making 50 percent of new vehicle sales electric by 2030. Using iron-air batteries in place of lithium-based batteries in grid storage could help take some of the stress off the supply chain since iron-based batteries do not require lithium.

Another attractive aspect to iron-based batteries is that their iron could potentially be sourced and processed in the United States. Working to strengthen domestic supply chains is a priority of the Biden-Harris Administration, as evidenced in the IRA guidelines that increase tax benefits for manufacturers meeting domestic sourcing criteria. In an interview with EESI, ESS Director of Corporate Communications Morgan Pitts noted that over 80 percent of the company’s materials by volume are domestically sourced, and 100 percent of its production is domestic. Form Energy is set to install its first commercial-scale project in Minnesota, which has an abundant supply of iron. According to Form CEO Mateo Jaramillo, the state’s iron deposits were an exciting benefit to their site choice. Jaramillo writes that Form Energy is “very actively investigating what it would be like to use [Minnesota iron] as a resource.” Iron-air and iron-flow batteries offer the opportunity to prioritize U.S. sourcing, production, and labor in the transition to renewable energy.

Unlike iron-flow batteries, lithium-ion batteries require precise temperature regulation to function, losing significant efficiency after temperatures rise above 77 degrees Fahrenheit. For states with hot summers, this necessitates the installation of expensive cooling equipment in battery storage facilities. On top of adding to the economic cost, air conditioning contributes to energy consumption and can increase pollution from carbon-emitting energy sources. According to ESS, iron-flow batteries function efficiently in a much wider temperature range of 23 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, making them ideal for installation in outdoor environments while also avoiding the financial and environmental costs of temperature regulation. This advantage will become even more important as climate change triggers rising temperatures across the United States.

Another benefit of iron-based batteries is their safety. The electrolyte solution in iron-flow batteries, for example, has a pH comparable to wine, and the batteries pose no risk of combustion. Furthermore, the materials used are highly recyclable. The nature of iron-based batteries means that they have a much longer lifespan than lithium-ion batteries, which degrade quickly after four to seven years of use. ESS batteries have a lifespan of 25 years and, in theory, the iron and electrolyte solutions could be reused indefinitely. By contrast, lithium-ion batteries require specialized disposal to avoid potential combustion, creating an additional cost to energy suppliers and potentially polluting nearby environments.

The Future of Iron Batteries

While iron-based batteries offer promising potential, they are still a developing technology, and therefore require support for research and effective implementation. Federal funding has already helped iron battery development, with the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) having funded ESS research into using iron slurry for a longer-duration battery. In an email with EESI, Morgan Pitts said that the collaboration between ESS and ARPA-E “played a key role” in allowing the company to refine iron-flow technology and prepare for market-scale deployment. Continued federal support can help the United States harness this technological advancement in the development of renewable energy.

The IRA and IIJA provide billions in funding to implement energy storage, with the IIJA designating $505 million specifically for energy storage, and the IRA creating an Energy Investment Tax Credit of 30 percent for energy storage. Directing this funding to prioritize safe, affordable, and domestically-sourced energy storage technology could boost the production and deployment of iron batteries, leading to potential benefits for U.S. markets, manufacturing, and most importantly, the climate.

Source: eesi

With the growing demand for sustainable and efficient energy solutions, Salgenx has taken a bold step towards addressing the challenges of grid-scale energy storage. The newly unveiled multifunctional industrial powerhouse combines cutting-edge technology, unmatched performance, and a commitment to eco-friendly lean design practices.

The core feature of Salgenx’s groundbreaking technology lies in its ability to offer a multifunctional approach to energy storage. This innovative jaw-dropping solution not only provides grid-scale power storage but also boasts a range of additional functionalities that enhance its value and versatility while charging. Salgenx’s industrial powerhouse can handle multiple tasks, including desalination of water, graphene production, and other industrial processes, making it a truly transformative asset for industries worldwide.

What sets Salgenx’s multifunctional industrial powerhouse apart is its unparalleled affordability using salt water as its core. With a commitment to providing accessible energy storage solutions, Salgenx has managed to achieve a breakthrough in cost reduction, ensuring that this advanced technology is available to a wider range of customers. This marks a significant step forward in the global transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy systems since salt water covers more than 70 percent of Earth. Tax credits of $35 per kW are available for battery production, while carbon credits are associated with the production of cathode materials.

“We are thrilled to unveil the oil well of the future, where renewable energy from wind turbines or solar photovoltaic systems can be utilized to generate power, desalinate salt water, and produce graphene simultaneously while charging into energy storage,” said Greg Giese, CEO of Salgenx. “Our goal is to revolutionize the way energy is stored, harnessed, and utilized. With this groundbreaking technology, we aim to empower industries across the oceans to achieve their sustainability targets while maximizing efficiency and minimizing costs.”

Salgenx is calling upon industry leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders to join forces and embrace this transformative energy storage solution. Together, we can accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient future.

About Salgenx a division of Infinity Turbine LLC

Salgenx is a cutting-edge technology company dedicated to revolutionizing energy storage solutions. With a focus on grid-scale applications, Salgenx develops innovative and sustainable technologies that address the challenges of the rapidly evolving energy landscape. The company’s commitment to affordability, performance, and eco-friendly practices sets it apart as a leading player in the energy storage industry.

With the theme, “Driving Energy Transition Pathways Towards COP28,” the forum has been jointly organized by the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) and the independent non-profit organization Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

This influential event unfolds amidst the world’s ongoing significant transition toward a decarbonized future and against the backdrop of a promising outlook for the Middle East and Africa’s (MEA) battery energy storage system market. According to a recent report by Mordor Intelligence, the MEA’s market is projected to witness a compound annual growth rate of over 5.2% during the period of 2023-2028.

The Energy Storage Forum aims to address the challenges and opportunities arising from the global shift towards a decarbonized world. It will bring together high-ranking contingents from the Middle East and various parts of the world, including power system operators, energy storage developers, researchers, and service providers, among others.

Distinguished delegates from GCC utility companies are expected to be among the esteemed attendees. The event will offer them an opportunity to explore the status of energy storage technology and how it can support the region’s power sector transition towards sustainability and decarbonization.

EPRI President and CEO Arshad Mansoor highlighted the forum’s importance in the lead-up to COP28, saying, “Without a doubt, the forum will contribute to the success of the upcoming COP28 that will take place in Dubai this November. The Energy Storage Forum will be an opportunity to showcase how energy storage can help strengthen our renewable resources despite vulnerabilities to weather and climate conditions. Dubai’s commitment to sustainability makes it an ideal host for this significant gathering. The forum in Dubai will contribute to advancing the dialogue on energy storage and shaping the future of the global energy landscape.”

While pumped storage hydro has historically dominated the energy storage landscape, new forms of energy storage, particularly lithium-ion batteries, have significantly improved in terms of cost and performance. This progress has opened up numerous site-specific opportunities for energy storage. With continuous innovation, the deployment of battery storage for stationary power systems is expected to increase from 5.5 gigawatts in 2020 to 26.2 gigawatts in 2025.

Additionally, the Energy Storage Forum 2023 will provide a unique opportunity for international participants to network and build partnerships with industry leaders, like-minded peers, and other stakeholders in the energy sector.

Source: PTI

The report, The Interconnection Bottleneck Why Most Energy Storage Projects Never Get Built, was prepared by the Applied Economics Clinic on behalf of Clean Energy Group and found that local interconnection processes have not kept up with rising interest in and incentives for energy storage resources.

“Nationally, almost all of the projects waiting in interconnection queues are for solar, wind and storage projects,” Todd Olinsky-Paul of Clean Energy Group, said in a statement. “The wait to interconnect is so long that many projects drop out and never end up being built. Those that don’t drop out due to long wait times can face enormous costs for distribution grid upgrades, which makes projects uneconomic. This poses a barrier to energy storage deployment and hinders the ability of states to meet clean energy and decarbonization goals.”

The report synthesized information gathered in 11 interviews with stakeholders in interconnection policy debates conducted by the Applied Economics Clinic between August 2022 and January 2023.

The report used Massachusetts as a case study because the state provided an instructive example because of its advanced energy storage targets and incentive programs, advanced decarbonization and clean energy goals, and the steps the state has begun to take to address interconnection issues.

Interconnection barriers have already had negative impacts in Massachusetts, the report’s authors said, noting that, at the end of 2022, the state’s interconnection queue had 2,321 megawatts of proposed solar capacity, 429 MW of standalone storage capacity, and 868 MW of hybrid capacity. In comparison, the state had 1,195 MW of existing solar capacity in 2021 and 181 MW of storage capacity.

The report said interconnection problems are not unique to a single state or region and noted that at the national level a recent Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study found 1.9 million MW of solar, storage, and wind resources waiting in transmission interconnection queues. So, while the Applied Economics Clinic-Clean Energy Group report focused on Massachusetts, the report’s authors said the lessons learned are broadly applicable.

The report’s authors recommended that stakeholders, such as independent system operators, regional transmission operators, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission:

create interconnection processes that take a systemic view of applications rather than examining interconnection applications and grid upgrades in isolation;
continuously iterate interconnection processes to build in regular improvements, examine effectiveness, and coordinate stakeholders to tackle ad hoc coordination;
integrate solutions on multiple fronts simultaneously, and spread distribution system upgrade costs over a broader set of stakeholders than just the projects applying for interconnection.

Overall, the report’s recommendations aim to tackle the core problems of interconnection, such as bottlenecks arising from deciding who should pay for system upgrades, not making system upgrades proactively, and not considering storage or related control technologies adequately. “It is likely that a combination of solutions is needed, as smaller process-related changes will not overcome the main interconnection barriers on their own,” the report’s authors said.

Source: publicpower

Sharing the video of the completed factory on social media, Northvolt confirmed that the production is scheduled to begin by the end of the year, which will coincide with the official opening of the factory.

“The facility is powered solely by electricity from renewable sources. This aligns with our company’s business model, which focuses on using only green energy in all our factories located in Poland, Sweden, and Germany, as well as utilizing recycled materials,” said Robert Chryc-Gawrychowski, CEO of Northvolt Poland.

In February 2021, the company announced a $200 million expansion of its battery systems capabilities, bringing a new facility in Poland. The new factory would have an initial annual output of 5 GWh, and a potential future capacity of 12 GWh, Northvolt stated then.

The company has been focused on developing a sustainable manufacturing base to deliver on $55 billion in orders from key customers, including BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volvo Cars, and Volkswagen Group.

A key aspect of Northvolt’s strategy involves establishing a broad spectrum of competencies for battery supply chain activities in-house ensuring its presence throughout the battery value chain, including cathode material production and recycling. Through its large-scale recycling program, Northvolt intends to enable 50% of its raw material requirements to be sourced from recycled batteries by 2030.

With Northvolt’s vertically integrated approach, it has established three manufacturing facilities: Northvolt Ett, its first battery giga factory established in Northern Sweden. The factory also serves as the site for manufacturing active materials, cell assembly and battery recycling. The recently constructed, Northvolt Dwa, Gdansk in Poland will serve as a facility that will provide solutions to power motorcycles mining machines, energy storage systems and ferries. The third facility, Northvolt Drei in Heide, Northern Germany will be powered by renewable energy and is expected to produce enough green batteries to power 1 million electric vehicles.

Source: PTI

The demand for renewable energy resources has increased significantly as the world transitions towards a more sustainable future. But renewable energy resources such as solar and winds are only intermittently available, which makes energy storage systems essential to ensure a reliable power supply. Here are five takeaways from Omdia’s report, titled “Market Landscape: Battery Energy Storage Systems” by Moises Levy, PhD, data center power and cooling research lead at Omdia.

Battery applications in datacenters

The datacenter industry is benefiting from all the battery advancements in the battery field—driven mainly by the electric vehicle (EV) industry. Omdia expects the UPS battery market to grow at a 9.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2021 to 2030, reaching $4B by 2030. Dr. Levy identifies the following three main battery applications in the datacenter industry:

UPS systems: As mentioned in a previous article, the datacenter industry has started to displace traditional lead-acid batteries with new battery technologies for backup power. Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) batteries are used only in case of a power outage or disturbance. According to Omdia’s UPS Hardware Market Analysis–2022, global UPS hardware market revenue will reach $14.4B in 2026 at a 7.8% CAGR from 2021 to 2026.

Microgrids: Dr. Levy highlights the benefits of incorporating battery ESS into a microgrid solution to store energy and supply it during outages or when the grid demands it. Battery ESS can improve the flexibility and resiliency of the smart electric grid. It can also be seen as a component contributing to integrate renewable energy resources (e.g., wind, solar) into the power equation.

Smart-grid-ready UPS: This technology (a.k.a. grid interactive UPS) enable the flow of energy bi-directionally. Different modes of operation include standard operation, energy demand management, and fast frequency response, contributing to improve the reliability and stability of the electric grid.

New battery chemistries

Importance of Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Grid-scale energy storage has the potential to revolutionize the electric grid by making it more adaptable and capable of accommodating intermittent and variable renewable energy sources. In addition, it provides significant system services such as short-term balancing, grid stability ancillary services, establishing a sustainable low-carbon electric pattern, long-term energy storage, and restoring grid operations following a blackout.

Researchers have explored various energy storage systems, such as hydroelectric power, flywheels, capacitors, and electric batteries, to facilitate the operation of the power grid.

Electric batteries have emerged as the most viable option because of their rapid response time, flexibility, and short construction cycles. However, when integrating them into grid-level energy storage systems, the capacity, lifetime, energy efficiency, power, and energy densities must be considered.

Types of Batteries Used in Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Lithium-ion batteries are preferred for their high energy efficiency, density, and long cycle life. They are currently the primary battery technology for stabilizing the grid in the United States, with 77% of electrical power storage systems relying on them.

Flow batteries offer a promising alternative to Li-ion batteries for grid-scale energy storage due to their scalability, ability to increase duration without compromising power density, and use of a wider range of materials. They also have a longer lifespan (100,000 cycles over a 20-year lifespan) and pose fewer risks of explosion or fire.

New options based on organic metal-free materials, vanadium, zinc, and other alternatives are emerging, making flow batteries an exciting area of research for grid-scale energy storage.

The Role and Potential Applications of Batteries in Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Grid Monitoring and Control

Renewable energy sources like wind and solar are intermittent, and old rotating generators can’t entirely compensate for the fluctuation in their output. Therefore, batteries are used to balance the power more quickly without involving heavy mechanical parts that wear out quickly.

Batteries are also good at providing a quick response and scalability, making them suitable for managing power. Li-ion batteries are particularly useful in managing peak loads for up to four hours and can replace gas-fired power plants. Also, batteries can provide flexibility to the transmission grid, maintaining stable system operation even during contingency events.

Power Backup System

Batteries are essential for maintaining power backup systems and ensuring grid stability. They possess flexibility and can be adjusted in terms of location and scale as needed. Batteries can also absorb energy and function as a fast-acting load, which helps manage the balance between power supply and demand. In addition, their deployment increases the operational capacity of existing transmission lines without additional towers or lines.

Peak Shaving

Battery systems in electric grids are designed to provide energy during high peak demands and recharge during off-peak electricity hours. Lithium-ion batteries are a promising option for such applications due to their high energy density and round-trip efficiency.

These batteries help maintain frequency and voltage stability in islanded applications and large-scale deployment, especially when there is a disparity between power generation and consumption.

Operating Reserves and Ancillary Services

Maintaining a stable power system requires generation to match the demand for electricity at all times, which requires various operating reserves and ancillary services operating on different timescales.

Batteries are well-suited for short-term reliability services, such as primary frequency response and regulation, due to their rapid charging and discharging capabilities, which are faster than traditional thermal plants. Additionally, appropriately sized battery systems can provide longer-duration services, such as ramping and load-following, to ensure a stable electricity supply meets demand.

Recent Development

Giving Electric Vehicle Batteries a Second Life: 1300 Recycled EV Batteries Power Grid-Scale Storage System

Electric vehicle (EV) batteries that no longer meet standards for EV use can still retain up to 80% of their total usable capacity.

B2U has built a 25 MWh stationary storage system using 1,300 recycled EV batteries from Honda and Nissan and tested Tesla Model 3 batteries for grid-scale energy storage. In addition, the company’s patented EV pack storage system significantly reduces the storage cost and automatically disconnects batteries if they deviate from operating specifications.

The system charges from a connected solar farm and provides grid services to California’s wholesale grid market 24/7. In addition, the technology increases grid storage capacity and allows end-of-life EV batteries to be taken to recycling facilities.

A study suggests that end-of-vehicle-life EV batteries plus in-use vehicle-to-grid could supply the world’s short-term grid energy storage requirements by 2030 and up to 32-62 terawatt-hours of short-term storage globally by 2050.

MIT Modeling Framework Accelerates Development of Flow Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Flow batteries are a more efficient and safer alternative to Li-ion batteries in grid-scale energy storage systems. However, current flow battery technology predominantly relies on vanadium as its active material, and scientists are exploring alternative chemistries due to concerns over its reliability and availability.

MIT researchers have developed a techno-economic modeling framework that estimates the “levelized cost of storage” for different chemistries and provides general guidelines for choosing between finite-lifetime and infinite-lifetime materials. While there is no clear winner among the different chemistries, the framework allows for the estimation of capital and operating costs over the system’s lifetime, helping to make informed decisions on which option to pursue.

The modeling framework provides a valuable tool for assessing the economic viability of new and emerging energy technologies for flow batteries. This will be crucial for grid-scale energy storage, requiring long-duration, large-scale electricity storage to support renewable energy sources.

Challenges and Future Outlooks

Electric batteries hold promise as a significant element in attaining grid-scale energy sustainability. However, several challenges must be addressed to ensure their successful integration into grid-level energy storage systems. These challenges include decreasing costs further, building an effective battery recycling scheme, exploring novel battery technologies, and establishing comprehensive assessment standards.

Looking ahead, ongoing research and development on Li-ion and other battery technologies can lead to further improvements in energy density, cost reduction, and the development of safe battery systems. This presents a vast range of possibilities for the application of batteries in various fields, indicating a promising future for their role in grid-scale energy storage.

Source: azom