Clean energy advocates are increasingly focusing their hopes on battery storage to supply power to the grid from the sun and the wind, particularly during times of peak demand when the weather might be, inconveniently, cloudy and still.
India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST), a single tax applicable across the whole of the country, will be lowered for lithium-ion batteries by 10% in a move which has been welcomed by the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA). All goods and services are taxable under the law, which was introduced in 2017. Along with a wide range of other changes, the GST rates on lithium-ion batteries has dropped from 28% to just 18%. In related news, fuel cell vehicles will see their GST reduced from 28% to 12%.
Elon Musk is not short of ambition, and for the past couple of months, he and his company Tesla have been working on a massive battery project that has the potential to make even the company’s 129 MWh project in Australia look small. The company is working in collaboration with PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric Company) to create a massive battery system in California that will have a capacity of more than 1.1 GWh.
The US Army is behind a new research project at the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory that aims to send lithium-ion batteries spinning into a new era of high capacity energy storage. Among other things, that means more wind and solar grid integration, and that’s kind of funny considering that right now DOE is making yet another stab at finding a way to save old coal and nuclear power plants from the dust bin of history. Good luck with that!
SEOUL, South Korea, May 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kokam Co., Ltd, the world's premier provider of innovative battery solutions, today announced that it has successfully deployed for Alinta Energy, a leading Australian utility, a 30-megawatt (MW) system / 11.4-megawatt hour (MWh) Energy Storage System (ESS), the largest lithium ion battery deployed for industrial application in Australia. The ESS features Kokam's high power Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) Oxide battery technology, and is being used to improve the performance of an islanded high voltage network, which supplies power to major iron ore producers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
WASHINGTON - Lockheed Martin Corp hopes to launch a new “flow” battery made of inexpensive, nontoxic materials that can help utilities save money and use more renewable energy, company officials said on Monday.
A new wave of tariffs on Chinese goods targets batteries, but those tariffs are unlikely to have a major impact on batteries used for energy storage or electric vehicles, according to the Energy Storage Association, an industry trade group.
Exelon Corp., the biggest U.S. nuclear operator, is investing in the batteries of the future. The company is a lead backer of Volta Energy Technologies, a startup that plans to evaluate and test new energy-storage technologies. Albemarle Corp., the Charlotte-based lithium supplier, is also a lead investor in Volta.
Younicos has completed the installation and commissioning of an upgraded 3MW battery-based energy storage system on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Younicos replaced the previously installed lead-acid systems with advanced lithium-ion batteries — expanding the system’s operational lifetime while boosting performance.
While lithium-ion is rapidly racing ahead to become the “de facto grid storage solution” and is the most popular technology choice by far, vendors of other types of batteries are also targeting the market, with varying degrees of success. US firm Navigant Research published ‘Navigant Research Leaderboard: Non-lithium ion batteries for grid storage’, earlier this month, examining the technologies, business models and strategies for commercialisation and larger scale production of energy storage batteries that sit outside the many different sub-chemistries making up the lithium battery market ecosystem.
There is a global trend towards longer duration energy storage and even in this segment, lithium-ion batteries are expected to dominate the market over flow batteries and other technologies, an I.H.S Markit analyst has told Energy-Storage.News. The research firm issued its bi-annual Grid-Connected Energy Storage Tracker to its clients at the end of July, predicting the rise of grid-connected systems from an installed base of less than 4GW today to hit 52GW by 2025.
Aquion Energy, maker of energy storage batteries and whole systems based on a novel electrolyte with a chemical composition similar to saltwater, is back in business. The American company, which began production in 2014, went bust in March, offloading 80% of its workforce and sending its website offline. One British company, Solar PV Partners, which was selling Aquion Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) batteries said Aquion had developed a “sustainable, clean and non-hazardous product”, also describing it as “cost-effective” and “scalable” compared to alternative storage technologies.
Signing the cheapest PPA is like conquering the Iron Throne: Before you even have time to enjoy the accomplishment, someone's on their way to take it from you. In May, NextEra Energy Resources secured a 4.5-cent per kilowatt-hour solar-plus-storage PPA with Tucson Electric Power. That's low for just solar, but the 100 megawatts of generation will come backed by 30 megawatts of 4-hour-duration energy storage. The system is set to run by the end of 2019.
Renewable energy company Energy Renaissance is constructing a 1GWh per annum lithium-ion battery storage manufacturing plant at Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia. The plant, named ‘Renaissance One’, will have seven production lines that are due to become operational in late 2018. The firm claims this will be the Southern Hemisphere’s first facility producing semi-solid state lithium-ion batteries, which it says are uniquely optimised for warm climates.
A bid from Austria's BlueSky Energy for Aquion's assets was accepted by Aquion's U.S. owners. The CEO of BlueSky, Helmut Mayer, notes that the firm has been working with Aquion's batteries "for years" and sees "a future market for electricity storage in salt water technology." The CEO noted the environmental friendliness and low maintenance requirements of the battery. Mayer claimed the battery was suited for "homes and small- and medium-sized companies."
Demand Energy, a subsidiary of Enel Green Power North America, has begun construction on a microgrid with storage capability in New York City. The microgrid will comprise a 400-kW solar system and 400-kW fuel cell supported by a 300-kW, 1.2-MWh lithium-ion battery at Marcus Garvey Village, a mixed-income apartment complex owned by L+M Development Partners.
Flow batteries have made strides recently in bringing down costs and improving efficiencies, but they are going to have a tough time competing with the entrenched market leader: lithium-ion batteries. More than half of the 1,280 MWh of worldwide battery installations on the power grid since 2010 have been li-ion batteries, according to Department of Energy data. Looking at just 2015 and 2016, that share rises to 60%. In the United States, li-ion has an even bigger market share at 78% since 2010 and 97% since 2015.
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 28, 2017-- AES Energy Storage, a subsidiary of The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES), showcased two new Advancion® battery-based energy storage sites, totaling 37.5 megawatts (MW), in partnership with San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), a leading energy company delivering safe, reliable and clean power. One of the sites – located at a SDG&E substation in Escondido, California – hosts a 30 MW, four-hour duration energy storage project, representing the world's largest lithium ion battery-based energy storage installation, 50 percent larger than the next largest installation. Both SDG&E sites join more than 200 MW of installed Advancion battery storage capacity deployed around the world.
In 2007, KEA set a goal to produce 95 percent of Kodiak’s energy from renewable sources by 2020, to reduce reliance on diesel fuel and lower the cost of generation to customers. Today, the island has achieved that goal through a combination of hydroelectric and wind energy, KEA officials say. The new batteries will permit greater harvesting of wind potential.
Paris, October 19, 2016 – Saft has obtained approval of its Seanergy® marine energy storage system by the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) for use in a variety of hybrid and fully electric propulsion applications. Saft is the only manufacturer of marine lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries to use the Li-ion Super-Phosphate® (SLFP) chemistry which offers the highest levels of safety, performance and reliability. The approval process was based on simulated thermal runaway tests carried out on the Seanergy® systems by an independent laboratory in August 2016. During the propagation test 1, a cell was forced into a thermal runaway situation by a specific device inserted inside the cell. The test was performed three times. Thanks to the Super-phosphate® chemistry, the batteries passed the test on each occasion with no uncontrolled event, no fire and no explosion, with nearby cells remaining in a safe condition and no propagation to neighboring modules and without any active means of fire suppression.
LIVERPOOL, N.Y. -- The Grid-Star Lithium-Ion Energy Storage System, recently installed at Lockheed Martin's Liverpool facility, will reduce electricity bills and allow the aerospace, defense, security and advanced technologies company to provide services to the electric grid. That's according to company officials who believe this technology is a win-win for everyone involved. "We're delighted to do it at an important Lockheed Martin manufacturing facility to provide value both to ourselves and to the electric grid in a project that makes financial sense for us and demonstrates what we are doing with this new product line," said Richard Brody, Lockheed Martin sales and marketing director. Brody says four more systems will be installed at other Lockheed Martin facilities in the near future.
A soon-to-be-released study from a supercapacitor manufacturer claims lithium-ion batteries could be reaching their physical energy density limits, calling their future usefulness into question. Using a “first-principles analysis,” Wolfgang Mack, vice president of business development at Menlo Park-based Capacitor Sciences, argues lithium-ion technology has reached 87 percent of its commercially achievable cell limit for energy density.
J.C. Penney Co. Inc. recently was able to cut the power bills of six of its Southern California stores. The secret: batteries. Penney’s lithium-ion batteries, made by Panasonic Corp., charge by night in metal cases in the storage areas of each facility. Then, by day, when power from the grid costs more, they help run the stores’ air-conditioning. The batteries also help the stores avoid high utility fees, called demand charges.
SANTA CLARITA, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/12/16 -- BioSolar, Inc. (OTCQB: BSRC), a developer of breakthrough energy storage technology and materials, today shared recent media articles detailing the Company's approach to increasing capacity and reducing costs of lithium ion batteries, the predominant storage devices used by electric vehicles, personal electronics, and many other commercial and consumer applications. In a recent contributed byline entitled "Improving Lithium Ion Battery for Future Energy Storage Needs" for Battery Power Magazine, a leading print and online battery publication, BioSolar CEO Dr. David Lee cites challenges often associated with the chemistry currently embedded with existing lithium-ion batteries, as well as cost, for lack of advancements within the sector. Dr. Lee states that BioSolar seeks to reduce the cost of manufacturing and extend the lifetime of lithium-ion batteries, enabling mass adoption for electric vehicles as well as improvements in battery capabilities for personal electronics needs.