Energy Storage News

Last year, the U.S. energy storage market nearly doubled, and it is expected to double again in 2019. In fact, the final quarter of 2018 broke the previous record for megawatt-hours deployed in a single quarter by 50%, according to a report from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Energy Storage Association (ESA). Although solar-power projects are typically more likely to take advantage of battery storage, wind energy also benefits from storage in certain cases. For example, Texas’ largest energy storage site is co-located with a solar power plant — but it can make use of solar and grid-generated wind energy.

A digital map detailing more than 120 lead battery-powered energy storage projects has been unveiled by the Consortium for Battery Innovation. The map, published online for the Energy Storage Association’s annual conference held in Phoenix, Arizona this week includes diverse case studies demonstrating successful lead battery energy storage installations from the United States, to Asia and Europe.

Storage systems may support renewable projects, such as wind and solar, by regulating the variability of these energy sources and increasing reliability to deliver on-demand power. Picking an ideal battery application and designing the best system and operating strategy can make or break the economics of an energy storage project. There are performance-specific features and applications for each of these battery systems, however, the goal of energy storage developers is the same: to choose a battery application that will ensure an affordable, reliable, and efficient energy-storage system.

In this discussion on energy storage, including microgrids and storage as a service, Karim Wazni shares his insight on the storage market and the integration of renewables, such as wind and solar energy. Karim is the Managing Director of the Microgrids and Storage Solutions unit for Aggreko, a global provider of power-generation equipment and services.

ACCIONA Energia has received the first-ever prototype certificate for a grid-scale energy storage solution by DNV GL. The handover of the certificate took place at the American Wind Energy Association’s 2018 WNDPOWER Conference in Chicago. To explore the possibilities of grid-scale storage, ACCIONA Energia started up a hybrid plant for storing electricity in batteries as part of its grid-connected wind farm at Barasoain in Navarra, northern Spain.

ABB will supply an ABB Ability enabled microgrid and storage system to help integrate renewable wind and solar energy into the large tropical island’s power supply, reducing the need for fossil fuels and lowering the carbon footprint. ABB's microgrids, due in part to their size and power are ideal for remote

People have known for decades that energy resources such as wind and solar are cleaner and healthier than energy produced by dirty fuels. But, utilities and consumers occasionally express concern about the variability and dependability of those renewable sources. Those concerns are fading with the emergence of game-changing energy storage technologies. According to a new white paper released today by Environment New York, the rapid growth of less expensive wind and solar energy and the plummeting costs of energy storage have led to a six-fold increase in energy storage capacity (excluding pumped hydropower) over the past decade.

A unique partnership between Penn State and industry members is working to advance solar and wind energy through energy storage and microgrid systems education and training. The Energy Storage and Microgrid Training and Certification (ESAM-TAC) program is part of the GridSTAR Center, a smart grid education and research center at Penn State at The Navy Yard, located in Philadelphia.

The California Senate passed a bill that would give consumers more access to clean energy and provide the next critical piece for California to achieve its aggressive greenhouse gas and renewable energy goals. SB 700, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would increase availability of local, customer-sited energy storage for schools, farms, businesses, and homes. “In California, we are pushing aggressive renewable energy goals because we know that fighting climate change means taking action now,” said Senator Wiener. “This bill will push us down the path to 100% renewable energy. To meet our goals, we need solar, storage, and other renewable energy resources in every city and neighborhood in California, not just those that can afford it.”

ACCIONA Energía has started up the first hybrid plant for storing electricity in batteries that is part of a grid-connected wind farm in Spain. The company has also developed simulation software that will be used in the plant, for which it has been awarded the ‘Eolo Innovation’ prize for by the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE). These two projects make the company a pioneer in this kind of solutions, aimed at facilitating the integration of variable-generation renewables into the grid and optimizing the management of the power produced.

Power management company Eaton today announced a contract with Powin Energy to deliver a two-megawatt energy storage project in the Los Angeles Basin to support regional electric capacity and grid reliability. The project is part of the Southern California Edison 2016 Aliso Canyon Energy Storage Resources Adequacy (RA) Only solicitation, which procured fast-responding energy storage resources. Eaton is the single source provider for the energy storage inverter and balance of system equipment.

Alternative power sources are rapidly becoming a crucial part of the global power sector due to the rising acknowledgment of the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels. Despite rising public and government support, the key obstacle in the path of the alternative energy market has consistently been the fluctuations in the energy output achieved by the use of most alternative energy sources. The lack of a reliable energy storage technology that will allow for long-term storage of the energy generated from renewable energy sources has exacerbated the problems holding back the alternative energy sector and is thus likely to be a key area of research in the coming years. 

General Motors has made its largest renewable energy procurement to date, purchasing enough wind power to equal the electricity needs of 16 of its U.S. facilities. This includes business offices in Fort Worth and Austin, Texas, a major assembly and stamping complex in Arlington, Texas, and 13 parts warehouses east of the Mississippi River. GM has signed a PPA with Renewable Energy Systems to source 50 MW of wind energy to power 16 of its sites with 100% renewables. GM will source wind power through an agreement with Renewable Energy Systems, a global renewable energy and energy storage development and construction company. The company will purchase 50 MW of power produced at Cactus Flats, a 150-MW wind farm being developed by RES in Concho County, Texas. When the contract begins in the first half of 2018, 6% of GM’s global energy use will be powered by renewable energy.

Amber Kinetics and Hawaiian Electric Company have agreed to conduct a joint energy storage pilot project to test the capability of a flywheel system. Amber Kinetics will build and install an Amber Gen2 Model 25 steel flywheel system, the first commercially available four-hour duration flywheel, at Hawaiian Electric’s Campbell Industrial Park generating station on O‘ahu, where the utility will evaluate its operation. Amber’s innovative steel flywheel is a multi-hour energy storage system capable of charging and discharging electricity for multiple duty cycles per day. A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store and release energy. The storage system can provide renewable firming and peak energy shifting, flexible capacity, and ancillary services like voltage smoothing and frequency response for reliable utility operation.

A new report from Navigant Research provides an overview of issues facing utilities as they seek to integrate energy storage, including strategies and examples from countries around the world. “Utilities have matured in their approaches, developing distinctive strategies to transform energy storage from a possible threat into a likely opportunity” While cost-effective advanced energy storage technologies are providing utilities and grid operators with new tools to improve system reliability and lower costs, these systems also present risks as relatively new technologies are integrated into existing networks.

A new microgrid control solution from Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) marks the latest of University of California, San Diego’s ongoing improvements to its campus electrical utility system. The recently installed high-speed islanding detection and load shedding system integrates SEL intelligent controls and adaptive wide-area protection technology with the campus’ onsite generation, load and energy storage. Today onsite generation at UC San Diego covers approximately 85% of the campus’ annual load and 75% of peak demand—a total of approximately 50 megawatts. The remainder is imported from the San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) grid. UC San Diego’s diverse portfolio includes a 2.8-megawatt fuel cell, 2.2-megawatt solar network, a 30-megawatt gas-turbine cogeneration plant, a 2.5-megawatt energy storage system and a chiller plant.

Greensmith, one of the largest providers of energy storage software and integration services, announced that European utility E.ON has invested in its Series C round of growth financing. The additional investment brings Greensmith’s total Series C round to $18.3 million, including a previous $5 million strategic investment from American Electric Power. Greensmith plans to use the financing to expand commercial and technology delivery operations to leverage pipeline acceleration and to advance its market-leading GEMS energy storage software platform. 

According to a recent report released by GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association, 2015 is shaping up to be the biggest year yet in the energy storage sector, with a projected deployment of 220 MW. This amount is expected to more than double on an annual basis. The energy storage market is broken into three segments: residential, non-residential and utility. California has the largest residential and non-residential markets in terms of total deployment. However, PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organization in which Ohio is located, has the largest utility market, with more than 100 MW of storage deployed since 2013. As discussed in a previous Green Strategies article, PJM’s frequency regulation market has been a driver of the organization’s energy storage deployment.

Three significant dynamics are changing the renewable-energy market and the integration of that power into the existing grids, said DNV GL Wholesale Advisory Service, Head of Section Olof Bystrom. He elaborated on the dynamics at the recent AWEA Windpower 2015 Conference along with a survey conducted by his firm. The dynamics, actually developing trends and ideas, were distilled from a global survey of about 1,600 participants in 71 countries affiliated with the power industry.

Greensmith, a provider of grid-scale energy storage software and integration solutions, recently released a new audit service for energy storage that helps system developers evaluate the design of their storage system and improve performance. In this WindTalk podcast, Greensmith CEO John Jung discusses wind power and energy storage, and how an auditing service can help increase a project’s ROI.

NEC Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, introduced its next-generation SLD technology. It is the latest addition to the energy storage technologies available on the GSS grid energy storage platform. The SLD energy storage technology will utilize lithium-ion cells based on NEC’s lithium manganese oxide chemistry.

Operators of renewable energy sites have noted a number of different design and performance issues that have not always been properly addressed during the development of the projects. These issues have included transient over-voltages, harmonic problems, transformer saturation, power factor, reactive power, and voltage control. ABB has been a major supplier of equipment for renewable power development for many years. Over these years, the company has observed a number of incidents and problems that resulted from an incomplete understanding of the requirements for designing and properly specifying the equipment.

DNV GL will support the US government agency ARPA-E to validate the performance of ARPA-E funded grid-storage and distributed energy (micro-grid) technologies over the next four years. Together with partners — NY-BEST, Group NIRE, and CAR Technologies — DNV GL will provide a combination of third-party testing facilities, innovative testing and analysis methodologies and expert oversight to enable objective and transparent evaluation of existing ARPA-E grid-storage technologies through a program called Cycling Hardware to Analyze and Ready Grid-Scale Electricity Storage (CHARGES).

DNV GL will support the US government agency ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) to validate the performance of ARPA-E funded grid-storage and distributed energy (micro-grid) technologies over the next four years. Many of these technologies are still at an early stage and require more data on their performance, reliability, and safety through extended use under realistic grid conditions.