Energy Storage News

Articles in category: Mechanical Storage

1. GE Renewable Energy to support the development of pumped hydro storage solutions in India

   Explore GE | Imagination at Work Sep 17 2020 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage , Pumped Hydro

   

   GE Renewable Energy to supply and commission four 125 MW fixed speed pumped storage turbines for the new Kundah hydropower plant. The project is part of ongoing effort by Indian government to take full advantage of hydropower resources. GE Renewable Energy announced today that it has been selected by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) to supply and commission four 125 MW fixed speed pumped storage turbines for the new Kundah hydropower plant in India.

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   Mentions: India GE

2. Contenders: Long Duration Energy Storage Technologies, and Who's Behind Them

   Explore Energy Storage News Jan 7 2020 Compressed Air/Gas , Flow Battery , Liquid Metal , Mechanical Storage , Pumped Hydro , Sodium , Zinc

   

   As the global energy market, piece by piece, slowly but surely, moves towards a renewables-centered paradigm, dispatchable solar and uncurtailed wind, along with other forms of clean energy, are requiring longer and longer durations of storage to integrate them to the grid. While there’ll be a place for lithium-ion for many years yet, the technology really excels at applications of up to around four hours. For everything else, there’s a growing list of contenders, with diverse technologies and at different stages of commercialization. Here’s a handy guide to some of those technologies and their providers, electrochemical and otherwise, that promise anything from five hours to even days or weeks of storage.

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   Mentions: California Australia Japan

3. How Alternative Storage Solutions are Breaking into the Lithium-Ion-Dominated Market

   Explore utilitydive.com Nov 26 2019 Utility Grid , Compressed Air/Gas , Flow Battery , Hydrogen , Mechanical Storage

   

   Recent growth in renewable energy, spurred by state mandates, federal tax incentives, and increasingly attractive costs, has shifted attention to the use of energy storage to ensure that variable wind and solar generation reliably serve load and provide ancillary services. In this domain, lithium-ion currently dominates. But some analysts don't see it as economically-efficient enough at scale to fully support the amount of renewable energy expected to come onto the grid, and other options are on the rise, including rail-based gravity systems, hydrogen and flow batteries.

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   Mentions: California Nevada U.S.

4. Utility-Scale Storage Critical to Achieving Massachusetts Carbon Goals: UMass Study

   Explore utilitydive.com Nov 20 2019 Solar Photovoltaic , Wind , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage , Pumped Hydro

   

   The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is likely to fall short of its greenhouse gas emission goals if it cannot implement utility-scale storage, according to a new study. More than 70% of the state’s two pumped-hydro storage facilities — with a collective capacity of around 1,800 MW — is currently unutilized due to the lack of market incentives, according to researchers. The lack of utility-scale storage could mean that the state’s grid remains “dirty” even with a high penetration of renewables.

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   Mentions: California Massachusetts New York

5. GE Looking at Reservoir Pumps for Renewable Energy Storage

   Explore timesunion.com May 23 2019 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

   

   Scientists from General Electric's Global Research Center in Niskayuna recently won a $1.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study the viability of so-called pumped storage hydropower technology that essentially stores up power generated from solar and wind farms for use on the electric grid. The grant, which was awarded by the DOE's Water Power Technologies Office, will be shared by GE Research, GE Energy Consulting and GE Renewable Energy's hydro team.

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   Mentions: DoE U.S. GE

6. Hot Dam: How Hydro Storage Will Allow Uruguay To Join The 100% Renewables Club

   Explore GE | Imagination at Work May 20 2019 Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

   

   In recent years, 50-60% of Uruguay’s power has been generated from the country’s four hydroelectric dams on the River Uruguay. Most of the remainder comes from renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines. That combination has turned the country into the world’s poster child for low-carbon energy. The one remaining sticking point is storage. Without it, renewables can only be used as they are generated. Hydro storage provides reliability and flexibility to a renewables-based grid by creating a huge, continuously rechargeable battery that is entirely powered by the elements.

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   Mentions: GE South America Uruguay

7. Cemex Cements Storage Ties

   Explore reNews May 17 2019 Mechanical Storage

   

   The venture capital unit of Mexican cement giant Cemex is investing in Swiss company Energy Vault, which has developed energy storage technology inspired by pumped hydro plants. Energy Vault’s system replaces water with custom made concrete bricks that are combined with a proprietary algorithm-based software to operate a crane.

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8. Battery On The Berm: The Ludington Pumped Storage Facility

   Explore 9&10 News May 16 2019 Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

   

   The Ludington pumped storage facility is essentially one of the world’s largest batteries. Consumers Energy gets its base load of energy from its coal and gas plants across the state. When the energy demands peak above that base load, they need places like the Ludington Pumped Storage Facility to pick up the slack. In just a matter of minutes, they can open up the gates, get the water flowing through the turbines and pick up that amount. When the demand is low, like at night, they will start pumping water back in to the reservoir, getting ready for that next call.

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   Mentions: DTE Energy Michigan

9. How LADWP Uses Two Lakes To Store Energy Like A Giant Battery

   Explore LAist: News, Food, Arts & Events May 13 2019 Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Mechanical Storage

   

   The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has turned two big lakes into a monster battery capable of storing enough energy to power tens of thousands of homes. It involves using the excess wind and solar power L.A.'s renewable energy sites produce during the day to pump water from Castaic Lake uphill 7.5 miles to Pyramid Lake. Then, late in the day, when the sun goes down and the city's energy demand spikes, the water gets run downhill through hydroelectric generators at Castaic Lake.

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   Mentions: California U.S.

10. Pumping Up Potential

    Explore waterpowermagazine.com May 1 2019 Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Mechanical Storage

    

    Pumped storage accounts for over 94% of installed global energy storage capacity, rightfully deserving the accolade of being the world’s ‘water battery’. The existing 161,000MW of pumped storage capacity supports power grid stability, with the International Hydropower Association estimating that total storage is in the region of 9000GWh. A recent working paper has been produced to help stimulate timely discussion among policy makers and energy system stakeholders about the increasingly important role of pumped storage in the clean energy transition. The paper provides an assessment of the technology’s current status as well as tracing its historical roots.

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11. Energy Storage Changes the Power Profile

    Explore POWER Magazine May 1 2019 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

    

    The power grid is a pretty complex system. Electricity is generally produced on an as-needed basis. Generators ramp up and down based on demand. However, energy storage systems are beginning to change how demands are being met.

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    Mentions: California DoE Hawaii

12. Three Large-Scale Energy Storage Technologies That May Hold the Keys to Unleashing an All-Out Renewable Energy Transition

    Explore Solar Magazine Apr 15 2019 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Wind , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage , Thermal

    

    Recent developments to do with pumped hydro, liquid air and kinetic energy storage technology hold out the promise of inexpensive, widely available energy storage. If realized, deployments could be the catalyst that fuels growth of solar, wind and other emissions-free, renewable energy capacity to new, significantly higher, heights, proponents say.

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    Mentions: Highview

13. Funding Selections Announced for Innovative Design Concepts for Standard Modular Hydropower and Pumped Storage Hydropower

    Explore Department of Energy Apr 1 2019 Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Mechanical Storage

    

    The U.S. Department of Energy announced selections for up to $7.5 million for innovations that reduce cost and maximize the value of new stream-reach hydropower development and pumped storage hydropower. Funded projects will develop new design concepts and associated modeling and analysis for standard modular hydropower and pumped storage, respectively. DOE supports technologies consistent with DOE's Advanced Energy Storage Initiative—which drives technology beyond cost reductions toward improved performance and enhanced provision of services to the grid. Selections were made across two topic areas, including scientific analyses that would illustrate how pumped storage hydropower can optimize the performance of the U.S. electric grid system to lower overall system costs.

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    Mentions: DoE U.S.

14. Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Poised For Global Domination

    Explore CleanTechnica Apr 1 2019 Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Mechanical Storage

    

    A recent study suggests that the Earth holds 530,000 potential sites for pumped hydro energy storage. If that sounds too good to be true, well, maybe. The devil is in the details. On the other hand, the number-crunching does indicate that a massive amount of energy storage capacity is already close at hand, even without new technology breakthroughs.

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    Mentions: Australia DoE U.S.

15. UK Gov Stumps Up £20m to Crack Electricity Storage Challenge

    Explore Energy Voice Jan 30 2019 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Utility Grid , Compressed Air/Gas , Mechanical Storage

    

    A £20 million ($26m USD) competition has been launched to give a boost to innovative ways of storing electricity, the UK Government has said. It aims to scale up technologies to compete with current storage methods – lithium batteries and pumped hydro. Announcing the competition for innovators, the Business Department said energy storage was the next essential green technology, which would allow the UK to make the most of its growing renewable power sector.

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    Mentions: UK

16. Flexible Energy Storage Solutions

    Explore tdworld.com Jan 28 2019 Solar Photovoltaic , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

    

    Thousands of megawatt-hours of electrical energy squirreled away into utility-scale energy storage plants to cover the spread between generated renewable energy and the lowest reliable operating limit during the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. “duck curve” period of the day — does this sound like a glimpse into the far future of major utilities across the United States and the world? But the future has already arrived at the Carolina operating companies of Duke Energy. The Duke Energy Progress Company, serving customers primarily in the eastern half of North and South Carolina, managed a whopping 106 GWh of excess energy in 2017, largely generated from utility-scale solar in North Carolina, using pumped hydro energy storage.

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    Mentions: Duke Energy North Carolina South Carolina

17. Cemex R&D Subsidiary Sees the Ups and Downs of Energy Storage

    Explore Concrete Products Jan 7 2019 Mechanical Storage

    

    Crane-suspended concrete segments, patterned like an enormous stave silo, power a commercial scale-ready system based on what Swiss developer Energy Vault describes as “the principles that underpin traditional gravity-based pumped hydro plants.” Software operates an automated six-arm crane and orchestrates positioning of the concrete segments that provide the basis for efficient electricity storage and discharge. The use of low cost and environmentally-friendly concrete materials enables the system to achieve low cost per kilowatt-hour and high round trip efficiency while delivering a 30-40 year life without any degradation in storage capacity. Energy Vault figures that a properly configured system will be capable of reaching 100 percent of target power levels in 2.9 seconds.

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18. Energy storage must be at heart of our future grid, Alan Finkel says

    Explore theage.com.au Jul 6 2018 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Residential , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

    

    Chief Scientist Alan Finkel says Australia is taking a world-leading position in energy storage – beyond just batteries – and must put the technology at the centre of its own energy transition. The Chief Scientist’s report Taking Charge highlights Australia's rapidly increasing numbers of residential batteries as well as its investment in pumped hydro and other technologies to support renewable power generation, seeing it at the global forefront of the rise of energy storage.

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    Mentions: Australia Tesla

19. Virginia Governor Signs 11 Energy Bills, Including Solar, Energy Storage and Pumped Hydro

    Explore PV-Tech May 10 2017 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

    

    Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe signed 11 bills earlier this week that promote solar and other renewable energy resources such as pumped hydro.The bills include proposals for establishing a community solar pilot project, include energy storage in the mission of the state solar development authority and increase the size of clean energy projects eligible for permit from 100MW to 125MW.

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    Mentions: Virginia Dominion Resources

20. A Longer Look at Long-Duration Energy Storage

    Explore Breaking Energy May 2 2017 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Wind , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

    

    Trying to compare different types of energy storage is a bit like trying to compare the color green to the color blue. Here we take a stab at defining the market potential for long-duration energy storage and offer considerations for potential buyers of this new technology.

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    Mentions: Hawaii U.S. Norway

21. Battery Storage Already Competitive With Pumped Hydro, Says Arena

    Explore CleanTechnica Apr 14 2017 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Wind , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

    

    As Australia’s renewable energy industry awaits the imminent outcome of the South Australian government’s inaugural large-scale energy storage auction, the CFO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency has described two of the key competing technologies – large-scale battery systems and pumped hydro – as neck and neck on pricing. Speaking at the 2017 Large-Scale Solar Conference co-hosted by RenewEconomy and Informa in Sydney on Monday, ARENA CFO Ian Kay said projects pairing 100MW of renewable energy generation with 100MWh of energy storage were “about equal” in cost.

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    Mentions: Australia

22. Siemens to Supply 12MW Battery Storage Unit for Engie's Hydropower Plant in Germany

    Explore Hydro Industry News Mar 17 2017 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

    

    Engie Deutschland has awarded a contract to Siemens to install a battery storage unit at its pumped storage hydro power station in Kraftwerksgruppe Pfreimd, Germany. The battery storage will offer additional balancing energy for grid stabilization. The decentral battery storage will complement the existing facilities of the pumped storage power station, which already contributes primary and secondary balancing energy as well as tertiary reserve capacity for a secure energy supply. 

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    Mentions: Germany Siemens

23. FERC Issues License for Major Montana Energy Project

    Explore tdworld.com Dec 29 2016 Solar Photovoltaic , Wave, Tidal, Hydro , Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

    

    The Gordon Butte Pumped Storage Hydro project located in Montana has been issued a 50-year license to construct and operate by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  Final design is to be completed in 2017 with construction anticipated to begin in 2018. "This is a tremendous milestone achieved by a world-class team including Barnard, SNC-Lavalin and GE Renewables," said Carl Borgquist, President of Absaroka Energy.  "I'm so proud of our team who have worked diligently together to accomplish this significant milestone on the journey to project completion." 

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    Mentions: U.S. GE Montana

24. GE Forges Ahead With World’s First Wind + Hydro + Storage Project

    Explore CleanTechnica Nov 14 2016 Utility Grid , Mechanical Storage

    

    Trump or no Trump, the global clean energy train has left the station. A case in point is a new wind, hydropower, and energy storage collaboration between US-based GE and Germany’s Max Bögl Wind AG. The project is on track to connect its four wind turbines to the grid next year, with the hydropower component coming online in 2018. The project represents an innovative combo of two different forms of renewable energy with an energy storage bonus thrown in.  

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    Mentions: California DoE GE

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