Greensmith Energy, one of the largest providers of energy storage software and integration services, today announced that the company has been awarded a total of 63 megawatts (MW) in new orders in 2016 and is on track to install over 100 MW of energy storage by the end of the year. According to Greentech Media, the U.S. storage market grew 243% in 2015 and is projected to surpass the 1 gigawatt mark in 2019, and by 2020 it will be a 1.7 gigawatt market valued at $2.5 billion.

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Utility companies or others planning to install renewable energy systems such as solar and wind farms have to decide whether to include large-scale energy storage systems that can capture power when it’s available and release it on demand. This decision may be critical to the future growth of renewable energy.

The choices can be complicated: Would such a system actually pay for itself through increased revenues? If so, which kind of system makes the most sense, and which features of the system are most important? If not, how much cheaper do storage technologies need to be?

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The market for energy storage systems for renewable energy integration is expected to reach 45.1 GW between 2015 to 2025, according to Navigant Research.

The new report from Navigant Research, Energy Storage for Renewables Integration, examines the market for energy storage systems for renewable energy integration (ESRI) — energy storage systems designed to mitigate somewhat the variability of renewable energy powerhouses like wind and solar, “By far the fastest-growing forms of renewable energy in the last several years.”

At present, the levels of wind and solar being fed into the grid are slight, and are not affecting the mechanics of a centralized electricity grid much. However, in years to come, as the percentage of wind and solar generating electricity into the grid increases, “serious issues regarding the grid’s stability can arise” — issues which can, in part, be solved by energy storage systems which help to level out the variability.

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The White House recently announced that a number of federal actions and commitments from the private sector could result in 1.3 GW of new energy storage installations or procurements over the next five years. It also said that — with all the potential procurements, deployments, and private sector activity — it could be possible the total value reached might be $1 billion in energy storage investments.

If the White House’s vision is achieved and 1.3 GW is added to current energy storage capacity in the US, there will have been quite a surge in the rate of installations. In the first quarter of 2016, about 18.3 MW was installed, so if that amount remains steady for each quarter, the annual total will be around 72 MW. The White House’s target, if achieved, would mean about 260 MW would be installed each year for 5 years, in addition to the amount from the other sources.

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LG Chem, the world’s top battery supplier, said Sunday its latest energy saving technology for use in households received an award in a technology fair, Munich, Germany, last week.

“LG’s New RESU-branded energy storage system (ESS) received an award in the InterSolar 2016 technology fair held in the German city of Munich, last year. LG Chem is the first Korean company to win a prize in the ESS segment in an international tech exhibition,” LG Chem said in a release.

C. S. Song, head of LG Chem’s public relations office, said the award was thanks to the RESU ESS’s improvements in enhancing energy density, reducing costs and cutting weight.

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Greensmith Energy recently announced that it has received 63 MW of energy storage orders, and that at the current pace, the company will install over 100 MW this year.

“The successful execution of this strategy has brought tremendous growth to the company in both grid-scale and behind-the-meter business. Beyond the cumulative megawatts delivered, Greensmith continues to invest in software innovation and integration capacity to serve a growing number of the largest power companies in the world. It is clear that 2016 is a momentous year for Greensmith and the energy storage industry as whole,” explained John Jung, the company’s CEO and President.

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Energy Storage News – Last Thursday, California regulators issued a decision modifying the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), a 2001 program which provides incentives for energy storage and behind-the-meter generation. Under the new rules, 75% of the SGIP budget will be allocated to energy storage.

Additionally SGIP will move to a declining block grant incentive system, similar to the California Solar Initiative (CSI), with incentives for most systems starting at US$.50 per watt-hour (Wh) in the first step and declining to $0.30 per Wh in the fifth. Large-scale energy storage projects which receive the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) will start at $0.36 per Wh and decline to $0.16 per Wh.

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The world of electric vehicles and energy storage are becoming increasingly intertwined, after German carmaker BMW last week became the second major carmaker in as many months to announce plans to enter the home energy storage market.

BMW told delegates at the Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exhibition 29 conference in Montreal last week it will use the high voltage batteries deployed in its i3 range of electric vehicles to create a new residential storage product in collaboration with German firm Beck Automation.

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Energy Storage News – California State University (CSU) says it is installing what will be the largest battery storage project at an educational institution in the nation—a project that is expected to reduce the university system’s electric utility costs by more than $3.3 million.

University officials say that Advanced Microgrid Solutions, a company that provides energy storage systems for electric utility grid support, will initiate the project by installing and operating a 1 Megawatt energy storage system at the Cal State Long Beach campus. The company also plans to install energy storage systems at the CSU’s Office of the Chancellor and at the Dominguez Hills campus.

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The energy storage industry enjoyed a moment in the spotlight last week when theWhite House hosted a summit on that topic. Now this burgeoning sector will work to capitalize on this new exposure to get policies in place that allow storage markets to grow.

The core message energy storage companies are trying to send is that their products provide a value to the grid, but it’s a value that the markets currently aren’t designed to compensate. The rules were written before this technology came into its own, and now they’ll need to be amended for storage providers to recoup investments that yield tangible services to the grid. As electric generation shifts away from central, thermal plants to more distributed and variable renewable sources, the ability to flexibly store energy will play an ever more critical role. 

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