Energy Storage News

French utility Engie and German energy storage firm sonnen have signed a strategtic partnership to offer a package of solar and energy storage to households in France. The ‘My Power’ package is already available and Engie has identified 3 million customers in France living in detached houses that are conducive to using the solar-storage combination. Moreover, customers in southern France could power close to 100% (up to 95%) of their electricity needs through the package in the summer months between May and September, with northern customers able to generate around two thirds of their power demand. Sonnen spokesman Mathias Bloch emailed Energy-Storage.News this week to confirm reports of the deal which had appeared in various news outlets.

New Jersey is the latest US state to set itself targets for the deployment of energy storage, with newly passed legislation calling for 600MW of the technology within three years. A bill, S2314/A3723, passed last week as one of three sustainability and low carbon measures for the state going forward, calls on the New Jersey Public Utilities Board to analyse the costs and potential benefits of energy storage as well as making revisions for community solar, energy efficiency, peak demand reduction and solar renewable energy certificate programmes.

California’s recent droughts and ongoing need to economise water use have inspired more commercial energy storage at a local water board, with ENGIE Storage delivering a project for the San Diego Water Authority. The new battery energy storage project is expected to save the Authority (SDWA) US$100,000 per year on its energy costs. The batteries will be used to store low-cost solar energy for use during peak times and times of low solar generation. SDWA and ENGIE Storage, which was formerly known as Green Charge prior to its acquisition by the European utility, struck up a deal for the project in May 2017.

Advanced battery solutions company Saft has just announced details of a project the company executed in Spain, installing battery energy storage systems to streamline energy costs and efficiency at a refrigeration company. Spain’s stalled solar market has shown some recent signs of returning to life, while a small handful of energy storage projects, including a 20MW system from France’s Electro Power Systems (recently acquired by ENGIE), have got underway.

US utility Florida Light & Power (FPL) has followed up the US’ first DC-coupled grid-scale battery system with the announcement of a solar-plus-storage project pairing 10MW / 40MWh of energy storage with an existing 74.5MW PV plant. The output of FPL’s Babcock Ranch Solar Center in Charlotte County, installed in 2016, will be made dispatchable with the addition of the battery, storing power when the sun is shining and then outputting it when cloud cover or other factors cause dips or drops in generation. The solar-plus-storage plant will also be used to mitigate peaks in network demand, like early evenings when solar production has tailed off but households return from their days work and switch on their domestic appliances. In Florida, the need for air conditioning can especially drive peak demand.

2018 promises to be an exciting year for energy storage in New York State. The year began with a major announcement by Governor Andrew Cuomo who, in his annual State of the State address, announced a new energy storage initiative and set an unprecedented 1.5GW target for energy storage deployment in the state by 2025. Governor Cuomo also announced the investment of more than US$260 million in funding to accelerate the growth of the industry. The initiative is intended to spur the widespread deployment of energy storage systems in the state and grow 30,000 jobs in the state’s energy storage industry.

The CEO of ‘intelligent energy storage’ provider Stem Inc, has said a recently-awarded project in Japan will lean on business models the company has used in the US, while artificial intelligence (AI) technology makes that same transference possible. Energy-Storage.News reported in December last year that California-headquartered Stem, which services the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector, was awarded a contract to build a virtual power plant by Japan’s government Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which includes energy and environment within its remit. The announcement came amid a wave of other investments.

The UK's government must “take the brakes off” the progress of energy storage by implementing the right policy framework without delay, according to Members of Parliament (MPs) from across the political spectrum. Speaking at Energy Storage and Connected Systems, an event hosted last week in London by the national Renewable Energy Association (REA), shadow minister for energy and climate change Alan Whitehead claimed current energy legislation was now “obsolete” in the face of the changes underway in the sector.

The CEO of Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, has said that his company is working to establish “a scalable commercial model” for solar PV and energy storage, viewing both as potential drivers of long-term growth. Danish power company Orsted, formerly known as DONG Energy until a rebrand and restructuring last year that also included selling off its oil and gas businesses, has just reported its latest quarterly financial results, including reporting for the full 2017 year.

A 3,000MW energy storage target, proposed in Arizona as part of a grid modernisation policy, recognises the role of the technology in reducing the need for fossil fuels to stabilise the grid, a consultant has said. Yesterday, Andy Tobin of the state’s regulator, the Corporation Commission, presented a plan that includes a goal to generate 80% of Arizona’s power from renewable sources by 2050, a commitment to review the existing Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff (REST) policy, to use renewables to mitigate peaks establishing a ‘Clean Peak’ standard and to deploy 3,000MW of energy storage to “leverage low priced energy during the day”.

The start of construction on India’s largest energy storage project is not only of strategic importance to regulators, but could also drive another wave of utility-scale projects in India, the chief of the country’s storage alliance has said. AES India, a subsidiary of AES Corporation, and Mitsubishi Corporation started work this week on the 10MW project that will support the network operated by Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL), a distribution company (Discom) that serves the North and North-West parts of Delhi. Energy-Storage.News reported in January 2017 that what is claimed to be India's first grid-scale energy battery storage project is designed to aid the integration of rooftop solar in particular.

France-headquartered multinational utility ENGIE has followed up acquisitions in smart energy by incorporating three companies, including commercial energy storage provider Green Charge, into its parent brand with the explicit aim of furthering its position in North American markets. The three, all headquartered in the US, are: Green Charge (also sometimes known as Green Charge Networks), a Washington-based energy data analytics and optimisation company, Ecova, and Opterra Energy Services, which installs energy efficient solutions for customers, including solar panels and LED lighting.  

Legislation proposed in Florida could see solar and energy storage become part of the go-to solution for providing energy resiliency against natural disasters and helping restore power in their aftermath. Holly Raschein, a Republican member of the House of Representatives for the US’ so-called ‘sunshine state’, introduced HB 1133 ‘Energy security and disaster resilience program’ on 2 January. The bill calls for the establishment of a pilot programme within Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to investigate and correctly value the use of solar-plus-storage systems in preventing or coming back from energy supply and delivery problems stemming from natural disasters and other causes.

Developer Convergent Energy & Power has installed a commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage system in Ontario for an injection-moulded plastics company, sized with 8.5MWh of batteries. In common with C&I projects elsewhere, the system is designed to help the host, Husky Injection Molding Systems, reduce its electricity bills by reducing the number of times in a year Husky’s operations need to draw electricity from the grid at peak times. Convergent said it is expected to reduce electricity costs on the load the system is connected to by 15% to 30% each year, beginning in early 2018.

Plans are in place for a combined 160MW solar and wind project with up to 40MWh of energy storage in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, while a smaller scale demonstration project experimenting with multiple technologies is being developed for Kerala. Bharat Reddy, deputy general manager, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), told PV Tech that AP Solar Energy Corporation, AP Nedcap and APTransco are planning to tender a project involving 120MW of solar, 40MW of wind and 20-40MWh of storage by March next year. The storage element will be technology agnostic.

Construction on Australia’s first utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage hybrid project to be connected to the national grid is about to start near Hughenden in northwest Queensland. Australian developer Windlab put out a similar release in October, but construction on the roughly 60MW plant is now due to start today. The project is owned by Windlab and its equity partner Eurus Energy Holding Corporation of Japan.

The government of the state of South Australia has named four utility-scale energy storage projects which it will support with grants toward the total cost of development.
The latest in a wave of project announcements coming from Australia at the moment, the funding is being administered through the state’s Renewable Technology Fund, an opportunity totalling AU$150 million (US$113.6 million), launched in late August.

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.

A representative of National Grid, the UK’s transmission system operator (TSO), has said that energy storage will be “integral” to the network’s flexibility strategy – while urging developers not to rely solely on early frequency regulation contracts. Claire Spedding, head of business development at National Grid, spoke at an event last week to launch “Energy storage: the next wave”, a market report on the technology and industry around it in Britain. The report is published by Regen, a non-profit consultancy promoting renewables and energy efficiency.

Australia has launched new interactive maps of the electricity grid specifically to support decentralised usage of distributed energy resources (DERs) including battery storage, renewable energy and smart demand management. The Network Opportunity Maps, a collaboration between research agencies, government and industry, aims to progress localised energy solutions across the country. The geo-spatial mapping goes hand in hand with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA) three-year demand response trial projects, all with an aim to reduce network costs and improve grid reliability.

Independent accreditation and testing company DNV GL has created Battery XT, the first testing-based verification of battery lifetime for lithium-ion (Li-on) batteries. The verification tool measures battery life cycle data and estimates battery degradation through different conditions and duty cycles — allowing renewable stakeholders to hold an objective method when it comes to valuing different types of energy storage technology brands.

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved funds of USD$350,000 for energy storage and grid modernisation in the Caribbean. The grant was approved to assist utilities and stakeholders with design and planning of storage and grid solutions, in an effort towards clean energy across the region.

Vionx, National Grid and the US Department of Energy have teamed up to install a 3MWh flow battery-based energy storage system in Massachusetts. The installation at Holy Name High School, MA, is one of the largest flow batteries in the United States and is designed for a 20+ year lifetime, during which it will retain its full storage capacity.