Developer NRStor and technology provider Hydrostor have completed work on a multi-megawatt, commercial, advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) system in Canada.

The project at Goderich, Ontario, has been under joint development by the pair since 2017. In a release sent out yesterday, Hydrostor described the plant as a “pivotal advancement on long-duration storage technology” as well as representing the world’s first “successful commercialisation of fuel-free adiabatic CAES technology”.

Associate Minister of Energy for Ontario, Bill Walker, and the province’s Minister of Government and Consumer Services, Lisa Thompson, were among attendees at a ribbon-cutting ceremony held a few days ago.

The plant will play into a number of energy market opportunities and potentially provide multiple services that include peaking capacity and ancillary services for the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), for which the CAES project is contracted, as well as “full participation in the merchant electricity market,” Hydrostor said.

“NRStor and Hydrostor’s Compressed Air Energy Storage project is a great example of the innovation we’re seeing in this province, and will help us further understand how these unique resources can best integrate with Ontario’s market and system operations, and drive down costs for consumers,” Ontario IESO president and CEO Peter Gregg, said.

“New technologies are changing the way we keep the lights on for Ontarians.”

As detailed by Energy-Storage.news on announcement of the project two years ago, depleted underground salt caverns are pumped full of compressed air, the salt naturally sealing cracks in the cavern’s walls. The project is 1.75MW peak power output rating, has a 2.2MW charge rating and 10MWh+ of storage capacity. Hydrostor also touted the fact that it is the first A-CAES project to meet IESO interconnection standards.

While the requirement for appropriate site location may be a challenge, Hydrostor argues that its technology, which converts electricity into compressed air, goes a step further and also removes the heat generated by the compression process and stores that as energy to be used later. Therefore A-CAES is considered to increase the round-trip efficiency of storing energy as compressed air. A couple of months ago, Hydrostor received approval for its first Australia project after time spent scoping out potential sites and customers.

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At a session during POWERGEN International, representatives from the energy storage industry discussed the risk of fire for energy storage projects that include lithium-ion batteries.

Paul Hayes, CEO of American Fire Technologies walked the audience through what happens when a battery catches fire. He explained that no technology exists to stop Thermal Runaway (TR), the phenomena that takes place when a lithium-ion battery increases in temperature and that changes the conditions in a way that causes a further increase in temperature in battery cells around it. He said he is a big fan of the Battery Management System (BMS) because when working correctly, the BMS should detect an anomaly in a battery cell and shut down the system before TR takes place.

He explained that right before a battery catches fire, it off-gasses, and he showed a video of what that looks like in a cell.

Chris Ruckman, energy storage director at Burns and McDonnell spoke about some of the fire suppression systems that exist on the market. Aerosol systems, he said, are not always effective because they usually require smoke and heat to operate and those two elements are not necessarily present when TR of a lithium-ion battery system begins. He added that sprinkler systems are also ineffective since they only cover the top of the battery system and the issue is most likely to be inside a cell.

The only way to counteract thermal runaway is to cool the adjacent cells and neither aerosol systems nor sprinkler systems can do that.

Ruckman said the best preventative measure is to communicate early and often with first responders so they know what type of energy storage system is present at your facility. He recommended that there is signage posted about what battery chemistry is at the site and also lists a person that first responders can call if they have a question.

Next up was LG Chem VP Peter Gibson who talked about some of the myths around lithium ion such as that batteries themselves are the only safety risk and that batteries are commodities. He also wanted the audience to know that any lithium battery can catch fire, including some of those that are marketed as “safe,” particularly lithium phosphate. The last myth he wanted to dispel is that lithium batteries give off poisonous hydrogen fluoride gas, which they do not, he said.

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Glendale Water & Power (GWP) recently joined the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) to develop, support, and promote clean energy technologies and policies. The CESA is a nonprofit membership-based advocacy group committed to advancing the role of energy storage in the electric power sector through policy, education, outreach, and research.

Last year, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 100, making California the largest state to set a zero-emission electricity target. SB 100 mandates 100% zero-emission electricity by 2045, with 60% of electricity to come from renewable resources by 2030. This bill puts utilities into motion to look into and implement cleaner technologies.

In July 2019, the GWP received approval from the Glendale City Council to move forward with a plan to repower the aging Grayson Power Plant with a combination of renewable energy resources, energy storage, and a limited amount of thermal generation. The plan includes a 75-MW, 300-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), as much as 50 MW of distributed energy resources (DERs) that include solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, energy efficiency and demand response programs, and 93 MW of thermal generation from up to five internal combustion engines.

CESA membership provides the GWP the tools to educate and influence key stakeholders, access industry experts, network, build partnerships, and develop new business opportunities. “We became members of the CESA to help shape the future of energy storage and transition to a 100% clean energy future,” said Steve Zurn, general manager of the GWP.

The CESA’s mission is to make energy storage a mainstream resource in helping to advance a more affordable, cleaner, efficient, and reliable electric power system for all Californians.

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Saft, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Total, has won an order for three Intensium Max 20 High Energy containers from TuuliWatti, the Finnish wind developer and operator.

The Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) energy storage system (ESS) will support frequency regulation at a 21 MW wind farm in northwestern Finland. It will also optimize the wind power, as well as provide backup and black start capabilities.

The Li-Ion ESS, the largest in the Nordic countries, is sized to provide an energy storage capacity of 6.6 MWh and deliver 5.6 MW of power for frequency regulation throughout its 15-year lifetime.

It comes in three integrated containers of 2.2 MWh each, designed and manufactured at Saft’s site in Bordeaux, France.

Commenting on the contract, Tommi Riski, portfolio manager for power at TuuliWatti, said: “TuuliWatti’s goal is to be the leading wind power developer and producer in the Arctic region. Saft’s high-energy containers will help us achieve this at Viinamäki by improving the competitiveness of wind power. They provide a fast response in challenging environmental conditions, as well as the energy storage capacity to support grid stability, allowing us to adjust the output of our wind farm immediately.”

Hervé Amossé, executive vice-president ESS division at Saft added: “This contract is an early commercial success for Saft’s latest lithium-ion energy storage system, launched in May 2019. The Intensium Max 20 HE container offers more than twice the energy storage capacity of previous Saft containers and provides best-in-class energy density, lifetime and assured performance. It builds on Saft’s track record of success with high-power energy storage systems.”

Saft launched the Intensium Max 20 HE to address the majority of grid, renewables, commercial and industrial applications that require large-scale ESS solutions with discharge times of around two hours.

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At a session during POWERGEN International, representatives from the energy storage industry discussed the risk of fire for energy storage projects that include lithium-ion batteries.

Paul Hayes, CEO of American Fire Technologies walked the audience through what happens when a battery catches fire. He explained that no technology exists to stop Thermal Runaway (TR), the phenomena that takes place when a lithium-ion battery increases in temperature and that changes the conditions in a way that causes a further increase in temperature in battery cells around it. He said he is a big fan of the Battery Management System (BMS) because when working correctly, the BMS should detect an anomaly in a battery cell and shut down the system before TR takes place.

He explained that right before a battery catches fire, it off-gasses, and he showed a video of what that looks like in a cell.

Chris Ruckman, Energy Storage Director at Burns and McDonnell walked the audience through some of the fire suppression systems that exist on the market. Aerosol systems, he said, are not always effective because they usually require smoke and heat to operate and those two elements are not necessarily present when TR of a lithium-ion battery system begins. He added that sprinkler systems are also ineffective since they only cover the top of the battery system and the issue is most likely to be inside a cell.

The only way to counteract thermal runaway is to cool the adjacent cells and neither aerosol systems nor sprinkler systems can do that.

Ruckman said the best preventative measure is to communicate early and often with first responders so they know what type of energy storage system is present at your facility. He recommended that there is signage posted about what battery chemistry is at the site and also lists a person that first responders can call if they have a question.

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Almost exactly a year since the Nordic region’s ‘largest’ battery energy storage system to date was announced, Saft has said that the next system to take that crown will be a project the company will work on in Finland.

Saft, the battery energy storage system (BESS) specialist fully-owned by energy major Total, emailed Energy-Storage.news today to reveal details of the project, which is being built to support Viinamäki, a 21MW wind farm in northwestern Finland.

The new project looks set to overtake the 6.2MWh battery system currently being installed at the 44MW Forshuvud hydropower site in Sweden by Finland-headquartered clean energy solutions provider Fortum, which this site reported planned details of in November 2018.

This itself leapfrogged the previous title-holder, the memorably named ‘Batcave battery’ (not to be confused with the similarly named Batwind project, in Scotland) also developed by Fortum, providing frequency regulation to the grid and in operation since 2017. Due to the high shares of renewable energy commonly used by Nordic countries and supportive policies, as well as the success of electric vehicle uptake (particularly in Norway) and the natural cooling impact of the region’s climate that makes it a suitable location for data centres, more are likely to follow.

Saft has been awarded its latest project by Finnish wind developer and operator TuuliWatti. The 21MW battery system has 6.6MWh capacity (thereby just pipping the Fortum project by a fraction). This comprises three Saft Intensium Max 20 HE (High Energy) integrated, containerised energy storage units, each of 2.2MWh. Saft manufactures the systems in Bordeaux, France.

The Intensium Max 20 HE solutions that the project will use were launched to provide ESS applications that generally require fewer than two hours’ storage discharge time. The project for TuuliWatti will perform frequency regulation tasks for the local grid, with the batteries capable of delivering 5.6MW of power for frequency regulation. The systems have an expected lifetime of 15 years.

TuuliWatti portfolio manager Tommy Riski said the Saft high-energy containers will help his company to become “the leading wind developer and producer in the Arctic region, by improving the competitiveness of wind power”.

“They provide a fast response in challenging environmental conditions, as well as the energy storage capacity to support grid stability, allowing us to adjust the output of our wind farm immediately,” Riski said.

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The DOE wants information from industry, academia, laboratories and other stakeholders on “accelerating the commercialization of [supercritical carbon dioxide] power cycles that are appropriate for near-term integration with [CSP]” with a focus on “near-term commercial deployment,” according to a notice published in the Nov. 19 Federal Register.

CSP, in which a field of mirrors concentrate the sun’s rays onto a central point like a “power tower” to generate tremendous amounts of heat, can be paired with insulated tanks that absorb the thermal energy. Like a battery, that energy can be deployed at a later time, including at night when there is no PV solar energy.

Many currently-operating CSP projects, such as the nearly-400 MW Ivanpah project that sprawls over 3,500 acres in Southern California, generate electricity by using the thermal energy to produce steam that drives a turbine. But researchers and R&D companies like Brayton Energy are seeking to harness the Brayton power cycle, the basic concept that underlies gas-driven engines like the jet engine, to turn heat into electricity by heating up CO2 to drive a gas turbine.

CSP has been a minor player in the renewable energy industry compared to PV solar for years, with some in the industry viewing it as too cumbersome and expensive to deploy. The CO2 power cycle could be a solution to that problem for CSP, according to the DOE.

The DOE has a goal of cutting the levelized cost of electricity for CSP that can store electricity deployable for up to 6 hours from 18.4 cents per kWh in 2017 to 10 cents per kWh in 2030. For CSP that provides a 12-hour storage duration, the goal is to decrease the cost from 10.3 cents per kWh in 2017 to 3 cents per kWh in 2030. DOE considers “integration with high-efficiency, low-cost power cycles” to be “a key element” for lowering the costs of energy from CSP, the department said in the Federal Register notice.

“Turbines and heat exchangers for [supercritical CO2) are predicted to have significantly lower capital costs than equivalent steam-cycle components due to their compact footprint stemming from the higher energy density of the supercritical fluid,” the DOE notice said. The fact that the process does not use steam could also make CSP more viable in locations where there are limits on water consumption.

In 2018, the DOE awarded $27.7 million in funding for projects related to long-term energy storage, including $2.7 million for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to work on low-cost thermal energy storage systems that utilize closed-loop Brayton cycle turbines and $1.99 million to Brayton Energy. With the aid of competitive grants from the DOE issued since 2010, the New Hampshire-based Brayton Energy has been developing the solar receiver and energy storage subsystem for a prospective CSP plant that would use the Brayton power cycle.

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