Drawing inspiration from the plant world, researchers have invented a new electrode that could boost our current solar energy storage by an astonishing 3,000 percent.

The technology is flexible and can be attached directly to solar cells – which means we could finally be one step closer to smartphones and laptops that draw their power from the Sun, and never run out. 

A major problem with reliably using solar energy as a power source is finding an efficient way to store it for later use without leakage over time.

For that purpose, engineers have been turning to supercapacitors – a type of technology that can charge extremely fast and release energy in large bursts. But for now, supercapacitors aren’t able to store enough energy to make them viable as solar batteries.

So a team from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia decided to investigate how living organisms manage to cram a lot of energy into a small space, and their imagination was soon spurred on by the ingenious fractal-based leaves of a common North American plant – the western swordfern (Polystichum munitum).

“The leaves of the western swordfern are densely crammed with veins, making them extremely efficient for storing energy and transporting water around the plant,” says one of the team, nanoengineer Min Gu.

“Our electrode is based on these fractal shapes – which are self-replicating, like the mini structures within snowflakes – and we’ve used this naturally-efficient design to improve solar energy storage at a nano level.”

In the image below, the surface of a fern leaf is magnified 400 times, and you can clearly see the self-replicating pattern that researchers used in their design:

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Answering the call for increasing energy self-reliance, a grassroots electricity-sharing model is emerging. “Community microgrids,” comprising community-owned or subscribed solar PV and other renewable energy sources, offer participants and surrounding consumers the security of energy resilience in times of grid failure and protection from energy price increases driven by volatile energy markets. They also give energy producers/consumers (aka “prosumers”) more control over the renewable energy they generate.

One of the most intriguing of such projects in the U.S. is LO3’s Brooklyn Microgrid (BMG), where residents with rooftop solar PV sell their excess energy to their neighbors, instead of relying on net metering to sell it back to their utility, ConEdison. Although the law prohibits energy consumers from selling energy to one another, BMG members are able to execute these peer-to-peer energy transactions using credits in a blockchain ledger. Every BMG prosumer connects to the microgrid through a dual-purpose meter called a TransActive Grid Element (TAG-e). The TAG-e both measures the participant’s energy production and consumption and communicates with other TAG-e devices to record transactions in the blockchain.

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Silicon Valley energy-storage provider, Adara Power, recently launched its second-generation storage system, the Adara Pulse. The Adara Pulse is an intelligent, stackable to 20-kWh energy storage solution driven by Adara’s iC3 Smart Controls technology.

The Adara Pulse supports AC coupling for off-grid and grid-tied applications. It tightly integrates all elements of the energy-storage system with a modular hardware and software approach, enabling the components to be stocked globally and eliminating the added cost of shipping bulky material to a central manufacturing site and expensive and unnecessary secondary enclosures.

The Adara iC3 Smart Controls with cellular connectivity feature out-of-the-box communication between lithium-ion batteries, Schneider inverters, and a Cloud-based software platform. The solution minimizes field programming and provides remote programmability.

The Adara Pulse can be ordered now to take advantage of the California Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), a ratepayer-funded rebate program available to customers of the major California investor-owned utilities (PG&E, SCE, LADWP, & SDGE). The Adara Pulse will be scheduled for nationwide delivery and installation during the third quarter of 2017.

“The energy storage market is at an inflection point. Energy density and performance of cells have improved and prices now support broad adoption. The Adara Pulse is perfectly aligned with today’s market realities,” said Neil Maguire, CEO of Adara Power.

It can be installed with a new solar installation or retrofitted with an existing system. Adara’s peak-shifting and self-consumption, non-export algorithms ensure compliance with the Federal Investment Tax Credit and adaptability for a wide range of energy storage use cases.

This advanced technology minimizes a homeowner’s electricity bill in regions subject to Time of Use (TOU) rates and support new net metering programs such as California’s NEM 2.0. And unlike many other energy storage systems currently available, the Adara Pulse has a UPS mode utilizing an 8 millisecond internal automatic transfer switch to keep house loads powered when the grid goes down for maximum back-up power.

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When Eli Harris co-founded EcoFlow Tech, his goal was to produce a green and mobile energy storage system that could serve as a mobile power station for consumers needing more than a phone charge.

“I wanted to take an industrial amount of power and put it in the consumer market,” said the co-founder and CEO of the company. “There were no portable batteries sized for consumers—only products like the fixed Tesla wall and the small batteries for phones.”

His idea was to put in the hands of consumers a portable battery system that could be paired with solar and used to power lights, camping equipment, small heaters, laptops, power tools, small refrigerators and many other consumer products for customers in the US and abroad.

Working with experienced battery engineers and with $10 million in backing from two of China’s leading supply chain and manufacturing companies, Harris and his associates developed River, a “personal grid” or mobile power station with a 412-watt capacity, the ability to charge 11 devices simultaneously, and a real-time power display. Ecoflow released the product earlier this week on Indiegogo and as of Thursday, had attracted more than $157,000 from 267 backers—523 percent more funding than its goal of $30,000 on Indiegogo.

“We broke $100K in six hours; less than 0.1% of campaigns in history have broken $100K in the first 24 hours and less than 1% of campaigns break $100K total,” said Harris. “It’s an exciting validation of the market demand for River and the new concept of personal energy storage.”

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San Jose, California, April 17th, 2017: TrinaBESS announced today that the company will introduce its large-scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) called TrinaMega for the US Market at the 27th Annual Energy Storage Association (ESA) Expo, held in Denver on April 18^th – 20^th.

TrinaMega is a modular plug-and-play containerized BESS solution, entirely custom-made, in order to answer specific battery usage and functions from utilities and large energy users. TrinaMega provides one of the best battery densities on the market for utility-scale projects, up to 2.9 MWh per containerized BESS. Each TrinaMega is scalable, and includes the complete BESS system, UPS, SCADA unit, thermal management, fire suppressant, power supply and auxiliary systems. TrinaMega is designed, manufactured and tested in full compliance with the latest edition of IEC, EN and UL standards, and provides one of the most optimized safety, control and monitoring systems.

“With more than 100 engineers, TrinaBESS designs each TrinaMega to fit specific battery needs for each projects in the United States, from resource adequacy, spinning reserves, frequency regulation, sub-second demand response, non-export, to power back up.” said Anne Torricelli, Director, Energy Storage Solutions, North America. “With the expansion of TrinaBESS in North America, we adapted the design of a modular solution that can meet the increasing demand for energy storage in the USA while providing local support directly from California.”

“Because of the high efficiency and excellent reliability of our TrinaBESS products, TrinaMega has been successfully developed in the UK and Africa markets. Some of the latest TrinaMega installations include a Triad and Frequency Regulation project in the UK and micro-grid energy storage projects in Africa and island countries in Indian ocean and pacific.” said Frank Qi, General Manager of TrinaBESS. “USA is the largest Energy Storage market in the world, and one of most important markets for TrinaBESS. With project references in Europe, Africa, Australia and Japan, TrinaBESS also continues its international expansion with local offices in Tokyo, Frankfurt, Sydney and Singapore.”

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Back in April 2015, Rocky Mountain Institute and partners including Global X and HOMER Energy published a study, The Economics of Load Defection, that examined how grid-connected solar-plus-battery systems will compete with traditional electric service.

The findings showed that declining costs for such systems, combined with retail price hikes for grid electricity, would make grid-connected solar-plus-battery systems economically optimal for customers in many parts of the country by 2030. Furthermore, solar-plus-battery systems can offer other important benefits to customers, such as backup power for critical loads in the event of a grid outage and cost savings via peak-demand shaving and time-of-use shifting. However, at the time, RMI’s study did not detail the exact nature of energy storage costs. 

Figuring out how to compare apples to apples

To break down the installed costs of PV-plus-storage systems today, RMI and NREL first analyzed data across a variety of existing studies from sources including Lazard and GTM, in addition to our own experience in the RMI Innovation Center. 

One challenge to analyzing component costs and system prices for PV-plus-storage installations is choosing an appropriate metric. Unlike standalone PV, energy storage lacks a standard set of widely accepted benchmarking metrics, such as dollars-per-watt of installed capacity or levelized cost of energy. Energy storage costs can vary both by the total energy capacity of the system — expressed in $/kilowatt-hour (kWh) — and the rate at which it charges or discharges — expressed in $/kilowatt (kW).

Some consumers may prefer to optimize their system for longer-duration discharge, while others may have high peak demand and want to optimize their storage solution for power (kW) rather than energy capacity (kWh). Given the diversity of household preferences and load profiles, using a single metric can artificially distort reported costs, making it difficult to compare across varying systems. Therefore, we used the total installed price as our primary metric, rather than using a metric normalized to system size. 

To analyze component costs and system prices for PV-plus-storage installed in the first quarter of 2016, we adapted NREL’s component- and system-level bottom-up cost-modeling approach for standalone PV. Our methodology includes accounting for all component and project-development costs incurred when installing residential systems, and it models the cash purchase price for such systems, excluding the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC). 

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A distributed energy storage network of 8,000 batteries located at 7,000 telecom facilities in France has reduced utility demand by 10 to 15 MW during two demand response events. And now the company that managed the program wants to bring it to the U.S.

Actility, which provides IoT-based grid balancing and demand response programs, wants to launch its program in the US by partnering with utilities and energy providers in the same way it does in Europe. In addition, it is seeking to work with companies, like France’s Orange Telecom, that have distributed battery networks, said Cedric De Jonghe, the energy business manager for Actility.

Orange Telecom has batteries in the 10- to 20-kW size range at 7,000 locations in France, and was one of Actility’s first partners, “lending” the batteries–and getting paid for it–during critical peak periods on the grid system. Actility aggregated the batteries to respond to the high peak periods.

“In 2017 we have experienced two activations thus far during moments when the electricity grid in France was facing a critical situation,” said De Jonghe.

Actility in 2010 began offering demand response services and started searching for ways to implement non-traditional demand response programs, De Jonghe said.

“We were looking for flexibility in highly distributed sources” in industries such as the telecom industry, he said. It launched its green demand response program in 2016.

In its first green demand-response project, Actility partnered with Orange, in addition to RTE, the largest Transmission System Operator (TSO) in Europe, and Enedis, the largest French Distribution System Operator, to create a “clean demand response” program that responds to spikes in energy demand.

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Speakers from 22 countries will be gathering at the 10th Energy Storage World Forum and the 4th Residential Energy Storage in Berlin May 8th-12th at a critical point for the industry. Tesla’s recent pledge to build a 100MWh battery plant in Australia within 100 days, or give it away for free, has put the industry under unprecedented pressure to deliver on its promises. Tesla energy division boss Lyndon Rive offered to install between 100MWh and 300MWh of battery capacity at breakneck speed in South Australia when he introduced Tesla’s new Powerwall and Powerpack systems in March.

The seemingly throwaway comment was picked up in local news reports and prompted Australian software tycoon Mike Cannon-Brookes to reach out to Tesla CEO Elon Musk over whether the offer was for real. Musk said it was, and added the Australians wouldn’t have to pay for the system if Tesla failed to deliver it within 100 days of a contract. The exchange led to a flurry of calls between Musk and Australian dignitaries, up to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, as well as requests for similar projects elsewhere, including one from Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Groysman. Under pressure from other storage players, including some based in Australia, the South Australian administration put the proposal for a 100MWh plant out to tender. At the time of writing, around 90 companies from 10 countries had lined up to match Tesla’s vow of achieving a cost of $250 per kilowatt hour for the project (it is unclear whether the Tesla price is in US or Australian dollars).

What happens next is likely to be the biggest test for energy storage since Tesla proved it could deliver residential batteries for less than USD$5,000. Typically for Musk, the spotlight is once again on his company above all others. But the apparent publicity stunt that Tesla staged in Australia is starting to look like a crucial turning point for the industry worldwide. It has pushed already soaring expectations about energy storage to new heights. “Tesla’s interest and enthusiasm in this goes beyond just the Australian market. It is proving a concept and providing a solution,” said Gero Farrugio, managing director of Sustainable Energy Research Analytics, in a Reuters report. Whichever company ultimately wins the South Australian tender will have to provide a record-breaking battery system in record-breaking time, for a rock-bottom price.

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40MWh (megawatt hours) of battery systems will soon be installed at 27 Walmart stores across Southern California.

Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) has announced it will design, install and operate its Hybrid Electric Building systems for the company. AMS says these will improve energy efficiency, guarantee the retailer electricity savings and provide grid services to local utilities.

The addition of energy storage will also help Walmart further boost its green credentials.

Walmart is listed on the US EPA Green Power Partnership National Top 100. Based on the latest figures (February), its annual green power usage is 826,343,726 kilowatt-hours.

The company has set a goal of powering 50% of its operations with renewables by 2025 (currently 4% according to the EPA) and is a member of the RE100; a group of large firms that have committed to 100% renewables.

To date, Walmart has made significant inroads with on-site generation, including solar power systems installed at 350 of its stores.

“Adding energy storage capabilities to our clean energy resources reduces the capacity needed from the grid and is part of our commitment to increase reliance on renewable energy,” said Mark Vanderhelm, vice president, Energy for Walmart.

It sounds like a pretty sweet deal all round for Walmart, which won’t have to outlay any capital for the batteries and will also be receiving revenue from providing grid services.

Reducing peak electricity demand is becoming a more pressing issue for companies around the world, including Australia, with commercial demand charges on the increase here – and residential demand tariffs are also appearing.

A demand charge is one applied based on the highest electricity demand recorded during a certain timeframe in a specified period.

For example, a business may have a low load throughout an average day except for a brief period where it spikes due to whatever activity is taking place at the time. The demand charge may be based on that brief load spike – and the bigger the load, the higher the cost. To make matters worse, the daily charge may be applied at this level over a full quarter or even a year.

Demand charges can make up a significant percentage of a commercial electricity customer’s bill and really eat into a company’s bottom line.

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Power management company Eaton today announced a contract with Powin Energy to deliver a 2-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.

“Powin Energy and Eaton worked together to help expedite and simplify the deployment of a dynamic energy storage system,” said Danny Lu, Vice President of sales and marketing at Powin Energy. “The solution combines Powin’s Stack140 energy storage system that includes our proprietary bp-OS software with Eaton’s Power Xpert storage inverter. Plus, Eaton’s electrical solutions, with real-time communications and diagnostics help reduce operation and maintenance costs while enhancing system responsiveness.”

Under the contract with Powin Energy, Eaton provided a utility-scale energy storage inverter, transformer, grid interface switchgear, low-voltage switchboard, B-Line^® series cable tray and commissioning services. The project will incorporate a 2,000-kilowatt (kW) Eaton Power Xpert^® energy storage inverter, which provides some of the highest power ratings for grid-tied, utility-scale storage projects and an 8,000-kilowatt hour (kWh) Powin Battery Energy Storage System. Eaton’s Power Xpert energy storage inverters and transformers are assembled in the U.S. Eaton’s Western U.S. regional manufacturing facilities and local technical support services are helping expedite the power distribution solutions.

“The energy storage projects in Southern California are a key part of a broader initiative that will help develop next generation energy infrastructure to enhance grid reliability and stability across the entire L.A. Basin,” said Chris Thompson, grid power business unit manager, Eaton. “With a fast-tracked timeline, the energy storage system deployed by Powin Energy and Eaton demonstrates how quickly such systems can be brought online to address our energy challenges.”

Eaton is leveraging more than 100 years of experience and expertise in utility and industrial environments to bring to market its Power Xpert energy storage utility-scale inverters. The inverters are part of Eaton’s portfolio of energy storage solutions and services, which also include: AC switching and protection, customized packaging, metering, monitoring and control systems. For more information, visit www.eaton.com/energystorage.

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