Energy Storage News

Fortum has started operating a 5 MW/6.2 MWh lithium-ion battery storage system at the Forshuvud hydropower plant in Dalarna, Sweden. It plans to use the storage system to lower the risk of network disturbances, while minimizing what Fortum describes as “wear and tear” on the hydropower facility. The batteries at Forshuvud will compensate for increasingly rapid changes in electricity generation caused by wind power, for example. The system will improve the hydropower plant’s role as a regulator and more effectively take advantage of capacity regulation.

Renewable energy proponents have been pointing to battery storage for years as the future panacea to address the problem of intermittent power generation. The potential of storage to make renewable energy fully despatchable regardless of whether the sun is shining or wind blowing has for a long time appeared to be just around the corner. Analysts at Wood Mackenzie today claimed we turned the corner last year and the end could be in sight for fossil fuel grid back-up services.

While the rest of the developed world discusses the prospect of how storage will transform grids and utilities, the state government of Western Australia is getting on with it – by replacing 54 km of ageing power lines and poles with off-grid solar and storage systems at 14 farms. These systems are standalone solar and battery systems that include a back-up diesel generator in case more power is needed. As well as replacing ageing grid infrastructure, the transition reduces the risk of bushfires caused by lightning strikes and of incidents related to the operation of farm machinery near electricity lines.

A team of U.S. researchers has presented a new approach to plastic waste treatment. A paper published by the American Chemical Society showed how researchers from Indiana’s Purdue University extracted pure carbon from plastic waste and turned it into anode material for lithium-ion batteries which powered a toy truck. The team claims that the method can be scaled easily. If so, plastic waste could find a hungry offtaker for its upcycled products in the PV industry, as co-located storage is becoming commonplace. The method produced battery anodes that perform competitively with commercially available products, the researchers claim.

In a statement released today, the car and battery manufacturer says it has invested €20 billion in the purchase of battery cells, as part of its CASE – connected, autonomous, shared & services and electric – corporate strategy. Without disclosing specifics, Daimler says it buys the cells on the world market to ensure “the best possible technology”, while it focuses on its “core competence” of battery assembly. Overall, the manufacturer says it is investing more than €1 billion in the creation of a global battery network within the production network of its Mercedes-Benz Cars, which will eventually comprise eight factories on three continents.

Socomec has been selected as a finalist in the Electrical Energy Storage (EES) award for its microgrid energy storage system at the EES trade fair in Munich (Germany) to be held on 20-22 June 2018.

The U.S. energy storage market over the last few years has been a true roller coaster. As measured by either capacity (megawatts) or duration (megawatt-hours), the amount of storage deployed has swung wildly from quarter to quarter. And coming in the aftermath of more than 200 MW deployed during the fourth quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017 – largely due to California’s need for capacity following the Aliso Canyon gas leak – Q3 was another quarter of relatively subdued deployment. In its quarterly Energy Storage Monitor, GTM Research reports 42 MW of energy storage deployed nationally, a 10% increase over Q3 2016.

German power provider Eon and Italian electric utility Enel have traded electricity over a new market place, which uses blockchain technology. The business could be handled directly and in a matter of a few seconds, the German energy company said. There is no need for a central broker, which reduces the cost of electricity procurement. In the future, customers should profit from this direct electricity trading via Blockchain and thus from the cost reduction, continued Eon.

German car maker BMW will provide Vattenfall with 1,000 lithium-ion car batteries. Vattenfall will use the batteries, which are also used for the vehicle BMW i3, for storage projects at wind farms.

Move over Tesla. On Monday, AES Energy storage announced the completion of a 30 MW battery storage system in Escondido, Southern California. As verified by GTM Research, this is the largest lithium ion battery storage system in the world by megawatt-hour rating. And while this system is 50% larger in capacity than Tesla’s much-hyped battery system at Southern California’s Mira Loma substation, it has not received the press coverage that Tesla’s has. But this is not the only battery system that AES has commissioned, as the company also put online a 7.5 MW array in El Cajon. Both systems are based on AES’ Advancion System, which can work with multiple battery technologies.

Today Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla and SolarCity shareholders have approved the merger between the two companies, with 85% of unaffiliated Tesla shareholders voting in favor. This was the key hurdle before the acquisition could go through.This comes despite strong concerns by the investment community regarding the condition of SolarCity, which lost over $200 million in each of the last two quarters, and whose stock value never recovered after plummeting last winter.

It is undeniable that the energy storage industry is booming in markets across the world, as more people consider it the key to renewable energy integration. Swiss integrated energy storage solution company, Leclanché, is feeling the effects of this boom, and has now announced its first project in the U.S. The company was selected by Swiss Green Electricity Management Group (SGEM) to provider EPC contractor services and a turnkey battery storage system for the 20 MW Marengo Energy Storage Plant in Chicago. The project, developed by GlidePath Power, is a landmark project in the region, as one of the largest commercial battery storage projects in the country.

Younicos, the Berlin, Germany-based energy storage company, has signed an agreement to supply four of its plug-and-play storage solutions to one of Panasonic’s operations hubs in North America. The agreement will see the creation of a 1 MW/2 MWh system comprising four Y.Cubes – which are Younicos’ storage-in-a-box solutions developed specifically for commercial and industrial (C&I) installations.

Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton has decided to review its portfolio in the face of the Paris climate accord and falling renewable technology costs, including the testing of solar and storage units at its mining site in Australia.

San Francisco has become the first city in the U.S. to approve such an obligation, which requires all new construction projects to have 30% of their roof space set aside for green roofs and/or solar panels, while one of the Californian city’s most iconic buildings also gets a solar makeover. Often considered the most progressive city in the U.S., San Francisco is continuing to pioneer environmentalist policy with its new green roof requirement. The scheme goes hand in hand with the drive for solar rooftops in the city, and was announced in the same week that one of the city’s famous “Painted Ladies” homes had a solar array installed on its roof.

A 270 MW solar tender offered by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has been completed this week, with Essel Green Energy, a subsidiary of the Essel Group, winning the bulk of the available capacity. Essel Green Energy was awarded a contract for a 240 MW solar project in the eastern state of Odisha after agreeing to the reserve price set by SECI of Rs 4.43 per kWh ($0.067/kWh). The winners were chosen on the basis of the lowest viability gap funding (VGF) sought from the ministry. Essel Green Energy asked for a VGF of Rs 49.5 lakh/MW to secure the project.

In a noble effort to show European residents just how they could benefit from installing rooftop solar, Panasonic has launched its effective new online simulator in Holland. The company hopes that the new platform will make installing solar a non-brainer, even in areas of the country that are not blessed with high level of solar irradiation. The simulator is simple to use. Homeowners just need to stick in their address, their roof characteristics and their annual electricity consumption for a calculated estimate of how much they could save by installing a solar array on their roof. The “Simulate your Solar System” also outlines to users the other benefits of the PV array, such as its environmental impact, the benefits of energy independence, and how it will make their homes ‘future-ready.’

Battery storage, net metering, trackers and the integration of solar as part of the smart energy concept were big themes at this years’ Intersolar North America trade show. The 9th Intersolar North America trade show has concluded in San Francisco, marking another year of growth for the dynamic U.S. market, with a strong view to the future on the heels of the extension of the federal Investment Tax Credit.

China’s Sungrow, an inverter producer, has this week launched a joint venture (JV) with Korean firm Samsung to develop storage solutions for China’s energy sector.The Sungrow-Samsung SDI Energy Storage Power Supply Co., Ltd boasts an annual capacity 2 GWh of lithium-ion energy storage systems (ESS), power conversion systems and energy management systems, and is the result of a $170 million investment between the two firms.

Much of the dramatic growth of solar PV in recent years has been driven by rapidly falling costs, and now battery makers are feeling the heat to drive down costs in order to accelerate deployment. German distributed battery market leader sonnen today showed significant progress in that regard, unveiling a new battery product for the U.S. market which it says represents a cost reduction of up to 40% over its other models. 

SunPower has been busy in various areas of the solar landscape of late, most recently with the award of 76% of the French government’s tender for solar and energy storage technology in France’s non-interconnected zones (ZNI). It will be delivered across numerous projects, as the French government looks to find a sustainable solution for island electrical systems. The country’s Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy announced the tender last year, with the goal of “deploying solar energy which is particularly adapted to island electrical systems.” Energy storage was included in the proposal from the start, to manage fluctuating weather and to have flexible systems that can manage electricity consumption when demand is high.

Today U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto are expected to announce a new continent-wide goal for the three nations to get 50% of their electricity from what they describe as “clean” sources by 2025.A fact sheet put out by the White House clarifies that this means renewable energy, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage technology, which has not been effectively commercialized at this time. Additionally, the White House has stated that energy efficiency will be a component of the agreement.

The U.K. Energy and Climate Change Committee, a parliamentary group including MPs from all parties currently in the UK Parliament, published its first report from the current session on Low Carbon Network Infrastructure on Friday. The report examined the three ways to tackle the variability in renewable power generation: energy storage, demand side response (DSR) and electricity interconnectors with foreign energy markets.

Big things are expected from the residential energy storage market, as it positions itself to take advantage of a shift towards residential solar and a rise in demand for electric cars. Canadian energy storage company, Electrovaya, is making a name for itself as a high-quality manufacturer of lithium-ion battery modules, beating off stiff competition to secure the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) for an estimated EUR199 million (USD223 million) of its modules.