A quarter of energy storage companies expect to reduce their workforces due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, while more than half are anticipating a loss in revenues, according to a new survey from the U.S. Energy Storage Association.

The ESA study queried 101 representatives from the sector. Most of the companies plan and hope to retain their employees while waiting out the virus which has killed more than 22,000 Americans so far this year, but they also confirm that the resulting work stoppage will cut into revenues and projects.

Sixty-three percent of the ESA survey respondents said they expected a decrease in revenues. A third went as far as to predict it would be a 20-percent drop or deeper.

Three-fourths of those energy storage respondents did not expect to reduce employment, but most of the rest admitted that reductions of up to 20 percent were possible.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the energy storage industry tremendously. While we still anticipate year-over-year growth, it is clear our industry is suffering with immediate and significant risks of workforce reductions and economic damage,” remarked Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of ESA. “These delays upend grid reliability and resilience efforts, just as we enter fire and hurricane season, and as states, towns, and utilities are beginning to incorporate energy storage systems as backup power to prevent power system disruptions for critical healthcare facilities. As such, ESA is actively seeking immediate relief from Congress and the Administration to relieve the financial stresses on our members and the industry, which represents more than 60,000 people, caused by the virus.”

Earlier this week, Chris Ruckman, energy storage director with EPC firm Burns & McDonnell, contributed a blog focused on the pandemic’s impact to the sector. He cautioned that while projects should eventually move forward, project leaders will inevitably endure shipping delays and supply line disruptions.

Some manufacturers, for example, have shifted from making batteries to producing face masks and disinfectant bottles in the near term, Ruckman noted. It will be a while to reconfigure those production lines.

Last year was the first year we saw installations of grid-connected battery energy storage decline. A total of 2.7 GW of grid-connected battery energy storage was deployed globally in 2019, compared to 3.7GW in 2018.

While the market was ready to accelerate again in 2020, the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic shock have significantly impacted the short-term outlook for energy storage.

Revising down our forecast by 19%, IHS Markit expects installations to total 4 GW / 10.9 GWh in 2020. While demand in the residential and commercial and industrial (C&I) segment will particularly suffer over the coming months, the overall market will still grow by 49% compared to 2019.

COVID-19 pandemic disrupts the global stationary energy storage market
Initial estimates show that the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus may be very severe. Preliminary results from IHS Markit’s Economics and Global Risk team’s latest global forecast update indicate a global GDP decline that will be far worse than the contraction in 2009”.

This highlights the wider financial difficulties in the coming months as this is not a crisis purely defined by temporary restrictions on workforces and logistics, but increasingly by an economic collapse of unprecedented proportions.

The energy storage industry is still in an early stage of rapid development. Thus, the epidemic should have a limited impact on the overall market development in 2020. As the fundamental need for the technology underpins strong project pipeline and the existing steep growth curve. Growth in 2021 and beyond will thus continue to accelerate.

Across the world, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic will be diverse. Despite severe economic challenges the United States will be the largest global market installing just over 2 GW in 2020 – with a drop in behind-the-meter demand and project delays in the front-of-the-meter (FTM) market causing the forecast to be lowered by 18%.

The US Energy Storage Association (ESA) today released survey results that show the impact that the novel coronavirus will have on the industry. The study was focused on analyzing the covid-19 effect on energy storage companies’ revenue, employment and projects in the second quarter.

The survey, which was answered by 101 representatives across the storage industry, revealed:

• While 63% of respondents indicated they expected a decrease in revenues (with 33% expecting 20% or greater reduction), 75% did not expect to reduce employment (inclusive of contractors).
• The top three reasons cited for potential reductions in revenues and/or employment were:
  • Customer delays or cancellations;
  • Difficulty in obtaining equipment, supplies or logistical delays; and
  • Permitting and approval delays.
• Of the 25% of respondents that indicated they expect to reduce workforce, most expected reductions of up to 20% of their employees.
• The manufacturing segment of the industry expected more widespread and deeper revenue reductions than the industry segment that includes developers and installers who implement storage projects.

As evidenced by the survey results, it is clear the energy storage industry expects a deep, albeit brief, revenue downturn this quarter. Most companies are focused on retaining their employees during this time in order to better prepare and respond once business returns. However, ESA assesses these results are consistent with the possibility that respondents plan to defer significant workforce reductions until after the end of the second quarter, if conditions do not rapidly improve.

“The covid-19 pandemic has impacted the energy storage industry tremendously. While we still anticipate year-over-year growth, it is clear our industry is suffering with immediate and significant risks of workforce reductions and economic damage,” said Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of ESA. “These delays upend grid reliability and resilience efforts, just as we enter fire and hurricane season, and as states, towns, and utilities are beginning to incorporate energy storage systems as backup power to prevent power system disruptions for critical healthcare facilities. As such, ESA is actively seeking immediate relief from Congress and the Administration to relieve the financial stresses on our members and the industry, which represents more than 60,000 people, caused by the virus.”

Powin Energy has unveiled three new products, Stack225, Stack230 and Stack230P, its first products utilizing CATL battery cells. All three products were designed by Powin around CATL’s large form factor cells, utilizing Powin’s patented StackOS battery management and controls software. Powin’s proprietary Stack products can perform a wide variety of in front of the meter, behind the meter, and microgrid applications to meet today’s evolving energy storage needs, yet they are designed to be flexible so that as priorities shift, the battery applications can be adapted to meet the needs of future use cases.

Already in mass production, Powin’s Stack225 product is used for 2–hour duration systems and offers a 10-year, one-full-cycle-per-day performance guarantee. The Stack230P is a product designed for shorter duration applications such as frequency regulation and other ancillary services. The Stack230 is Powin’s first product released to the market providing a 20-year, one-full-cycle-per-day performance guarantee. Stack230 was specifically designed for solar + storage applications, which typically require over three-hour system durations and can greatly benefit from a 20-year warranted life span, aligning with the typical life cycle of PV modules. The Stack230 performance guarantee allows the customer to use the batteries installed day 1 to be used for 20 years without any replacement.

“We are excited to formally announce the expansion of our product line to include three new CATL based offerings. By joining CATL’s reputation for quality and consistency with Powin’s utility scale ESS platform we are delivering systems that meet our customer’s needs for performance, reliability and bankability,” said Geoff Brown, President of Powin Energy. “With its 20-year performance guaranty the Stack230 in particular presents an exciting new and affordable option for utilities and IPPs looking to pair storage with new or existing solar projects. We aim to accelerate the modernization of the electric grid by increasing the value of renewable generation assets with long-duration, affordable and high-quality energy storage systems. With its unprecedented reputation and product quality, CATL is the perfect partner in the furtherance of our mission.”

On April 7, 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) announced that its staff will host a technical conference in July 2020 to discuss so-called “hybrid resources.” In its notice, FERC explained that it is using the term “hybrid resources” to refer to projects that are comprised of more than one resource type at the same plant location. For this summer’s technical conversation, FERC states that it will focus on scenarios where a “generation resource and an electric storage resource [are] paired together as a hybrid resource.”

FERC’s interest in this topic does not appear out of nowhere. FERC has been focused on facilitating emerging technologies and the integration of new technologies into the grid and the wholesale markets, as evidenced by recent orders such as FERC Order No. 841 (concerning participation by energy storage resources in U.S. wholesale power markets). In response to filings by the California Independent System Operator’s and PJM Interconnection for compliance with FERC Order No. 841, FERC received comments from the Energy Storage Association (“ESA”) and others raising the possibility of hybrid resources that would include energy storage.[1] ESA highlighted the hybrid resource issue and requested that FERC convene a separate proceeding or technical conference to consider the matter. Although FERC determined that ESA’s suggestion for a separate review of hybrid resources was beyond the scope of those Order No. 841 compliance proceedings,[2] it is convening this technical conference to learn more about the issue.

FERC’s technical conferences are not adjudicatory proceedings and will not create immediate obligations for FERC-regulated parties or projects. But technical conferences provide an opportunity for industry experts to educate FERC commissioners and staff on emerging trends in the industry. Because this generation plus storage topic is receiving more and more attention among energy industry participants (and indeed was the topic of a panel discussion at K&L Gates’ third annual Energy Storage Conference in November 2019), it is a timely topic.

Researchers at the University of Southern California looking to crack the renewable energy storage problem have developed a new version of a redox flow battery from inexpensive and readily-available materials.

Though there are huge lithium-ion battery installations from the likes of Tesla that can store energy harvested from renewables like wind and solar, they’re not exactly cheap. The USC researchers looked to an existing design that stores energy in liquid form.

In the so-called redox flow battery, a positive chemical and a negative chemical are stored in separate tanks. The chemicals are pumped in and out of a chamber where they exchange ions across a membrane – flowing one way to charge and the other to discharge.

Though such systems have previously used expensive, dangerous and toxic vanadium and bromine dissolved in acid for their electrolytes in the past, we have seen recent designs that replace those with organic or more environment-friendly alternatives.

For its design, the USC team used a waste product of the mining industry and an organic material that can be made from carbon-based feedstocks, including carbon dioxide, and is already used in other redox flow batteries.

In tests, the iron sulfate solution and Anthraquinone disulfonic acid (AQDS) battery was found able to charge and discharge hundreds of times with “virtually no loss of power.” The researchers say that the inexpensive nature of the materials used could also lead to significant electricity cost savings compared to redox flow batteries using venadium, if manufactured at scale.

April 9 (Renewables Now) – The Spanish ministry for ecological transition on Wednesday invited public and stakeholder opinion on the government’s Energy Storage Strategy and the Renewable Hydrogen Roadmap, two pieces of regulation needed so that Spain can reach the targets set out in the 2021-2030 national energy and climate plan (NECP).

Spain’s NECP addresses the opportunity to use surplus electricity with complex storage systems, as well as renewable hydrogen in high-temperature industrial processes and transport, the ministry said. But to develop and make use of these technologies, a proper strategy is needed.

Before drafting these documents, the ministry has asked stakeholders to comment on the role of storage in the electricity sector, possible incentives to promote its deployment, how to engage citizens and sectors in the implementation of the storage strategy, among others.

The consultation for the Renewable Hydrogen Roadmap will seek to identify sectors in which the use of hydrogen can contribute the most to the decarbonisation of the Spanish economy, possible barriers that prevent its deployment, as well as what factors should be considered from the socio-economic and environmental point of view.

Public consultation will be open for 15 days, but it will begin only after the state of emergency imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic is lifted, the ministry added.